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People who are active are less likely to develop Parkinson's disease, according to a new study.

After following 43,368 people in Sweden for an average of 12.6 years, researchers found that even "a medium amount" of physical activity significantly lowers the risk of the neurodegenerative disorder.

The latest involved data from 27,863 females and 15,505 males participating in the Swedish National March Cohort. None of the participants had Parkinson's disease at the start of the study. Participants were followed from Oct. 2007 to Dec. 2010.

Researchers identified 286 participants who developed Parkinson's disease. 

Further analysis revealed that people who spent more than six hours a week on household and community activity were 43 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's disease compared to those who spent less than two hours per week on the same types of activities. The study also revealed that men with "a medium level" of total physical activity were 45 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's disease. The study defined moderate physical activity as performing an average of 39.1 metabolic equivalent hours per day. Metabolic equivalent is determined by quantifying the estimated oxygen consumption associated with physical activity.

"Our study has a number of strengths. This was a prospective study including both males and females, and all information on physical activity was assessed before the disease occurrence, making recall bias and reverse causation less likely," study author Karin Wirdefeldt, researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Department of Clinical Neuroscience, said in a news release.

"Another major strength of this study is that we considered the entire spectrum of daily energy output, rather than purely focusing on dedicated exercising. Further, we conducted a rich set of sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of our findings," she noted.

"We found that a medium level of daily total physical activity is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease. The protective effect of physical activity was further supported when we summarized all available evidence from published prospective cohort studies. These findings are important for both the general population and for the healthcare of patients with Parkinson's disease," Wirdefeldt concluded.

The latest study was published online in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.