(CNN) Doing less sitting and more moving is tied to living longer, according to a new study.

Replacing 30 minutes per day of sedentary time with 30 minutes of physical activity at a light intensity was associated with a 17% lower risk of early death in a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology on Monday.

JUST WATCHED Exercise to live longer Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Exercise to live longer 01:17

The study also found that replacing 30 minutes of sedentary time with 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise was associated with a 35% lower risk of early death.

"If you replace 30 minutes of sitting time with 30 minutes of light-intensity physical activity -- so something just like a casual stroll down the hall -- that still can lower your risk," said Keith Diaz, a certified exercise physiologist and assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who was first author of the study.

"Obviously, it doesn't lower your risk as much as exercise, or as much as moderate to vigorous physical activity, but it still can lower risk, and to us, that was somewhat of a new finding," he said. "Any movement for any length of time is going to give you health benefit, and this is really shifting what we know about physical activity."

Read More