Daily movement patterns linked to cardiovascular disease risk
High light activity was linked to lower cardiovascular disease risk than high sedentary time, with a hazard ratio—a measure comparing risk over time—of 0.89.
Limit: The study excluded people who already have cardiovascular disease
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational cohort study followed 76,778 adult UK Biobank participants without cardiovascular disease at the start. Researchers used seven days of wrist movement-sensor data to classify sleep, sedentary time, light activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity. They identified five whole-day movement patterns and tracked outcomes over a median 9.9 years.
Compared with the highly sedentary group, the group with high light activity had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, despite little vigorous activity. Its hazard ratio was 0.89. The group with high levels of moderate-to-vigorous activity had a cardiovascular disease hazard ratio of 0.81 and a cardiovascular death hazard ratio of 0.47, both compared with the highly sedentary group. The analyses accounted for sociodemographic, lifestyle and clinical factors.
Why it matters
For cardiovascular prevention as people age, the findings suggest considering movement across the whole day rather than focusing on exercise alone.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish cause and effect, and the report was a conference abstract. It does not establish benefits for people who already have cardiovascular disease.
