Physical activity in the evening linked to greater health benefits for people with obesity
University of Sydney
Undertaking the majority of daily physical activity in the evening is linked to the greatest health benefits for people living with obesity, according to researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia who followed the trajectory of 30,000 people over almost 8 years.
Using wearable device data to categorize participant's
physical activity by morning, afternoon or evening, the researchers uncovered
that those who did the majority of their aerobic moderate to vigorous physical
activity- the kind that raises our heartrate and gets us out of breath- between
6pm and midnight had the lowest risk of premature death and death from
cardiovascular disease.
The frequency with which people undertook moderate to
vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in the evening, measured in short bouts up to
or exceeding three minutes, also appeared to be more important than their total
amount of physical activity daily.
The study, led by researchers from the University's Charles Perkins Centre is published in the journal Diabetes Care today.
"Due to a number of complex societal factors, around
two in three Australians have excess weight or obesity which puts them at a
much greater risk of major cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks and
stroke, and premature death," said Dr Angelo Sabag, Lecturer in Exercise
Physiology at the University of Sydney.
"Exercise is by no means the only solution to the
obesity crisis, but this research does suggest that people who can plan their
activity into certain times of the day may best offset some of these health
risks."
Smaller clinical trials have shown similar results,
however the large scale of participant data in this study, the use of objective
measures of physical activity and hard outcomes, such as premature death, makes
these findings significant.
Joint first author Dr Matthew Ahmadi also stressed that
the study did not just track structured exercise. Rather researchers focused on
tracking continuous aerobic MVPA in bouts of 3 minutes or more as previous
research shows a strong association between this type of activity, glucose
control and lowered cardiovascular disease risk compared with shorter
(non-aerobic) bouts.
"We didn't discriminate on the kind of activity we
tracked, it could be anything from power walking to climbing the stairs, but
could also include structured exercise such as running, occupational labor or
even vigorously cleaning the house," said Dr Ahmadi, National Heart
Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the Charles Perkins Centre,
University of Sydney.
While observational, the findings of the study support
the authors original hypothesis, which is the idea -- based on previous
research -- that people living with diabetes or obesity, who are already
glucose intolerant in the late evening, may be able to offset some of that
intolerance and associated complications, by doing physical activity in the
evening.
The researchers used data from UK Biobank and included
29,836 adults aged over 40 years of age living with obesity, of whom 2,995
participants were also diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
Participants were categorized into morning, afternoon of
evening MVPA based on when they undertook the majority of their aerobic MVPA as
measured by a wrist accelerometer worn continuously for 24 hours a day over 7
days at study onset.
The team then linked health data (from the National
Health Services and National Records of Scotland) to follow participants health
trajectory for 7.9 years. Over this period they recorded 1,425 deaths, 3,980
cardiovascular events and 2,162 microvascular disfunction events.
To limit bias, the researchers accounted for differences
such as age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, fruit and vegetable consumption,
sedentary time, total MVPA, education, medication use and sleep duration. They
also excluded participants with pre-existing cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The researchers say the length of the study follow-up and
additional sensitivity analysis bolster the strength of their findings however,
due to the observational design, they cannot completely rule out potential
reverse causation. This is the possibility that some participants had lower
aerobic MVPA levels due to underlying or undiagnosed disease.
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the Mackenzie
Wearables Research Hub at the Charles Perkins Centre and senior author on the
paper, said the sophistication of studies in the wearables field is providing
huge insights into the patterns of activity that are most beneficial for
health.
"It is a really exciting time for researchers in
this field and practitioners alike, as wearable device-captured data allow us
to examine physical activity patterns at a very high resolution and accurately
translate findings into advice that could play an important role in health
care," said Professor Stamatakis.
"While we need to do further research to establish causal links, this study suggests that the timing of physical activity could be an important part of the recommendations for future obesity and Type 2 diabetes management, and preventive healthcare in general."