“Weekend Warrior” Physical Activity and Cardiometabolic Health

Quick Takes

  • Guideline-based recommendations for ≥150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week reduced the risk of >200 disease states.
  • Patterns of physical activity performed over 1-2 days versus over a week’s time did not alter the benefit derived from the recommended physical activity.

Study Questions:

Does the “weekend warrior” pattern of physical activity yield similar reduction in risk for disease as spreading the physical activity across a week?

Methods:

Researchers utilized the UK Biobank prospective cohort and included individuals 40-69 years of age. These participants wore a wrist-based triaxial accelerometer for 1 week and data were collected from the device. The researchers tested associations between physical activity pattern and incidence of 678 conditions in 89,573 participants (62 ± 8 years of age; 56% women). To determine incident disease, assessment was performed upon completion of physical activity measure and concluded when either an event, death, or last follow-up occurred. Models during analysis were adjusted for the various baseline clinical factors, and p value thresholds were corrected for multiplicity.

Results:

Inactive participants (<150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week) were compared to the active participants (≥150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week), specifically assessing weekend warrior pattern and association to disease (267 total associations; 264 [99%] with lower disease risk; hazard ratio [HR] range, 0.35–0.89) versus regular activity pattern spread across a week and association to disease (209 associations; 205 [98%] with lower disease risk; HR range, 0.41–0.88). These two patterns of activity yielded similar associations with lower risk of incident disease.

Specifically, cardiometabolic conditions revealed the strongest associations, including hypertension (weekend warrior: HR, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.73–0.80]; p = 1.2×10-27; regular: HR, 0.72 [95% CI, 0.68–0.77]; p = 4.5×10-28), diabetes (weekend warrior: HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.51–0.62]; p = 3.9×10-32; regular: HR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.48–0.60]; p = 8.7×10-26), obesity (weekend warrior: HR, 0.55 [95% CI, 0.50–0.60]; p = 2.4×10-43, regular: HR, 0.44 [95% CI, 0.40–0.50]; p = 9.6×10-47), and sleep apnea (weekend warrior: HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.48–0.69]; p = 1.6×10-9; regular: HR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.39–0.62]; p = 7.4×10-10).

Conclusions:

Individuals who met the recommended level of physical activity were associated with a lower risk of >200 diseases. These associations were especially strong among cardiometabolic conditions including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea. The pattern of physical activity utilized yielded similar improvements, with up to 50% lower risk of cardiometabolic disease states.

Perspective:

When discussing the benefits of physical activity with patients, framing it to fit their needs such as completing it within 1-2 days versus daily over a week may be a motivating factor and improve success rates and compliance. Reducing the prevalent cardiometabolic conditions plaguing society by implementing pattern-based physical activity for individuals and communities can be considered when prescribing the guideline-based ≥150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week.

Clinical Topics: Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Disease, Prevention, Exercise

Keywords: Cardiometabolic Risk Factors, Exercise


< Back to Listings