Even reduction of 10-minutes of sitting and lying may improve cardiometabolic outcomes

"Our main purpose was to examine how compositions of 24-hour time-use, and time reallocations between movement behaviors are associated with cardiometabolic health in a population-based sample of middle-aged Finnish adults", says Vahid Farrahi, the lead author of the study from the Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics, and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

The study was part of the Northern Finland birth cohort 1966 program consisting of 3,443 participants who underwent a clinical examination and completed an extensive health and lifestyle questionnaire at the age of 46 years. Participants wore a hip-worn accelerometer for 14 days from which time spent in sedentary behavior (SB), light (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were determined.

Cardiometabolic outcomes included adiposity markers, blood lipid levels, and markers of glucose control and insulin sensitivity.

Findings of the research highlights-

1. More daily time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light physical activity (LPA), relative to other movement behaviors, were consistently favorably associated with all cardiometabolic outcomes.

For example, relative to time spent in other behaviors, 30 min/day more MVPA and light physical activity (LPA) were both associated with lower two-hour post glucose load insulin level (-11.8% and -2.7%, respectively).

2. Relative to other movement behaviors, more daily time in sedentary behavior (SB) was adversely associated with adiposity measures, lipid levels, and markers of insulin sensitivity. More daily time asleep was adversely associated with adiposity measures, blood lipid, fasting plasma glucose, and two-hour insulin.

For example, 60 min/day more SB and sleep relative to the remaining behaviors were both associated with higher 2-hour insulin (3.5% and 5.7%, respectively).

Based on the findings observed, the authors came to the conclusion that "Altering daily movement behavior compositions to incorporate more MVPA at the expense of any other movement behavior, or more LPA at the expense of SB or sleep, could help to improve cardiometabolic health in mid-adulthood."