It’s no secret that regular physical exercise has many protective effects in all age groups. It’s been linked to reducing the risk of several diseases including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, depression and overall mortality. But what about housework? A study recently published in PLOS ONE, the largest scientific open-access journal in the world, showed that older men who report doing heavy housework had a lower risk of overall mortality. That’s right folks, men who do more heavy chores around the house live longer. And the kicker? There’s no such association in women.
A large proportion of the general population is sedentary, and seniors in particularly are even less likely to participate in regular recreational exercise. They do however report participating in household activity which makes up the majority of any physical activity they receive. Sounds like my day, but I digress. A group of researchers in Hong Kong noticed the trend and asked the light-bulb-flickering question, does housework, as opposed to recreational physical exercise, have any protective effects? Published last week, the study followed a large group of community-dwelling seniors in Hong Kong who were examined over a nine-year period and got some unexpected results. They found an inverse association between the risk of overall mortality and heavy housework among men. Meaning, the more heavy housework, emphasis on heavy, that men reported doing, the lower their risk of death. The link persisted independent of other variables such as BMI, frailty, health status and leisure time physical activity indicating that housework in particular and not some other variable that it might be representing, has this association. The study further examined mortality due to cancer and saw the same results with men who reported doing heavy housework having a lower risk of cancer associated mortality.
The question is why? While the study didn’t examine this, the thought is that heavy house work results in a certain level of energy expenditure that is equivalent to moderate physical activity. Heavy housework was measured as vacuuming, mopping the floors, washing the windows etc which can burn a substantial amount of calories, particularly in the elderly. In fact, the researchers argue that previous studies that examined the association between physical exercise and mortality did not account for household activity as an independent factor which is estimated to be a large portion of activity in the elderly and can explain the mixed results from these studies. Finally, productive activities including housework have been shown to produce a sense of meaning and purpose which are associated with longevity. Psychologically, men have also been shown to be happier and less stressed when doing housework (where were these studies when I needed them during Spring cleaning?!).
What’s surprising though is that there was no significant association between housework and mortality in women. There’s really no good explanation for why. The number of deaths in women in the group of seniors that this study followed was small which may be part of the reason for the lack of a significant association. The researchers suggest the difference in the level of energy expended between light and heavy housework isn’t as high in women, but this seems like a weak explanation. Regardless, it an area that needs to be examined further for its underlying cause but I feel no need to nitpick at something that currently furthers my cause.
The take home message? Housework constitutes an activity of its own that is protective in men and its the good old-fashion elbow grease housework, not the"honey I put my dirty socks in the laundry hamper" kind. So gentlemen, better start pulling those mops out!
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