The benefits of exercise and its positive influence on physical and mental health are well documented, but a new Yale and VA Connecticut study sheds light on the role genetics plays for physical activity, accounting for some of the differences between individuals and showing differences in biology for physical activity at leisure versus physical activity at work and at home.

Using data from the Million Veteran Program (MVP), a genetic biobank run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the researchers analyzed genetic influences on leisure, work, and home-time physical activity. They wanted to understand how genetics impacts these three types of physical activity and compare their health benefits.

The study included nearly 190,000 individuals of European ancestry, 27,044 of African ancestry, and 10,263 of Latin-American ancestry. To study the genetics of physical activity during leisure time, the researchers also added data from the UK Biobank, which included about 350,000 individuals.

The analysis revealed that leisure-time physical activity was genetically distinct from physical activity at home and at work, with home and work activity showing much less health benefit with respect to health outcomes and lifespan. The results have been published in Nature Genetics.

“This work not only shows the genetic differences associated with physical activity performed in different contexts but also highlights the significant health benefits of engaging in physical activity during leisure time, which is the main goal of the project,” said Marco Galimberti, Ph.D., associate research scientist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare Center and Yale School of Medicine and the paper’s first author.

Joel Gelernter, MD, also of the VA Connecticut and Yale School of Medicine, where he is Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and professor of genetics and of neuroscience, and the senior author of the work, said that “data from this large genomics study allowed us to dive into the biology of these traits, and will provide materials for others to continue this work and go in different directions too.”