Cardiometabolic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes mellitus, are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. The global burden of these diseases has risen over the past three decades. Concerningly, these trends are projected to continue. Physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, and inadequate sleep are major behavioural risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases.
This study assessed how different movement patterns throughout the 24-hour day were linked to cardiometabolic health. Researchers analyzed data from six studies encompassing 15,246 participants from five countries to evaluate how movement behaviour across the day was associated with cardiometabolic health. A thigh-worn device tracked participants’ activity throughout the day, and six measures gauged cardiometabolic health: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, HDL cholesterol, total-cholesterol-to-HDL ratio, triglycerides, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c).
The researchers identified a hierarchy of behaviours that make up a typical 24-hour day, with time spent doing moderate-vigorous activity providing the most benefit to cardiometabolic health, followed by light activity, standing, and sleeping, compared with the adverse impact of sedentary behaviour.
The team then modelled what would happen if a person changed various amounts of one behaviour for another each day for a week to estimate the effect on cardiometabolic health. When replacing sedentary behaviour, as little as five minutes of moderate to vigorous activity had a noticeable influence on cardiometabolic health. Replacing 30 minutes of sitting a day with equal time standing or even sleeping improved obesity markers, such as body weight and waist circumference.
Although time spent doing vigorous activity was the quickest way to improve cardiometabolic health, individuals of all abilities can benefit. The findings suggest individuals can experience benefits by replacing sitting with virtually any other activity, including walking, standing, and even sleeping. However, the lower the activity intensity, the longer the time required to see a tangible benefit. For example, using a standing desk for a few hours a day instead of a sitting desk is a change over a relatively large amount of time that could be integrated into a work routine fairly easily.
The findings emphasize that positive cardiometabolic health outcomes can be most efficiently and feasibly achieved with small increases in moderate-vigorous physical activity and highlights an increasing need to identify personalized recommendations based on an individual’s current 24-hour movement behaviours.
