Girls who regularly exercise as teens significantly reduce their risk of death from cancer other major diseases in later life, according to a new study.

The research, based on a sample of 75,000 women aged 40 to 70, concluded women who participated in exercise as adolescents for 1.33 hours a week or more had a 16 per cent lowered risk for death from cancer, and a 15 per cent lowered risk for death from all causes. Those who participated in exercise as adolescents for 1.33 hours a week or less had a 13 per cent lowered risk for death from all causes.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention found that exercise in early life was key to long-term health regardless of lifestyle habits in later years. Unsurprisingly though, those with a life-long exercise habit enjoyed an even greater chance of prolonged good health. Women who participated in exercise both in their adolescent and adult lives had a 20 per cent lowered risk for death from all causes.

"In women, adolescent exercise participation, regardless of adult exercise, was associated with reduced risk of cancer and all-cause mortality,” said the study’s author, Sarah J. Nechuta, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Our results support the importance of promoting exercise participation in adolescence to reduce mortality in later life and highlight the critical need for the initiation of disease prevention early in life.”

In the UK there have been significant efforts to encourage greater levels of physical activity among teenage girls. Sport England’s highly-acclaimed This Girl Can campaign has sought to remove the psychological barriers that prevent women from exercising and playing sport, while a University of Bristol study is currently assessing whether peer-led intervention could help address the steep reduction in teenage girls doing physical activity at secondary school.