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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Visualization of Intensity Levels to Reduce the Gap Between Self-Reported and Directly Measured Physical Activity
Published on: March 7, 2019
Physical Activity and Risk of Lung Cancer: A Meta-analysis
Shanliang Zhong1, Tengfei Ma, Lin Chen
1*Center of Clinical Laboratory Science, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China; †Teaching and Research Office of General Surgery, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, China; and ‡Department of General Surgery, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Objective:
Previous studies concerning the association between physical activity (PA) and risk of lung cancer yielded mixed results. We investigated the association by performing a meta-analysis.
Data Sources:
Relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed and EMBASE to January 2014. Twelve cohort studies and 6 case-control studies involving 2 468 470 participants and 26 453 cases of lung cancer were selected for meta-analysis.
Main Results:
We calculated the summary relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effects models. The analyses showed that individuals who participated in any amount of PA had an RR of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.73-0.86) for risk of lung cancer. Those who participated in high PA (vs low PA) had an RR of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.68-0.84). Stratifying by study design (case-control and cohort studies), smoking status (current, former, and never smokers), and gender, similar inverse associations were found for all the subgroups except for never smokers subgroup.
Conclusions:
Pooled results from observational studies support a protective effect of PA against lung cancer.

