A study of 538 members of a nationwide runners club and 423 controls showed that running has multiple benefits in the elderly.

The participants were all older than 50 when they entered the trial and were followed until they died. 284 runners and 186 controls completed the 21-year follow-up.

At about two years, the mortality curves between the two groups started to split.

At 19 years, 15% of the runners had died, compared with 35% of the controls.

The disability scores were even more dramatic. A disability index score was used which showed that runners gained about 16 years on the non-runners. This means that the physical condition of the non-runners was 16 years older than the runners of the same age.