Objectively measured physical activity and sedentary-time are associated with arterial stiffness in Brazilian young adults

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine the associations between objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time with pulse wave velocity (PWV) in Brazilian young adults.MethodsCross-sectional analysis with participants of the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort who were followed-up from birth to 30 years of age. Overall physical activity (PA) assessed as the average acceleration (mg), time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA – min/day) and sedentary time (min/day) were calculated from acceleration data. Carotid-femoral PWV (m/s) was assessed using a portable ultrasound. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP), waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) were analyzed as possible mediators. Multiple linear regression and g-computation formula were used in the analyses.ResultsComplete data were available for 1241 individuals. PWV was significantly lower in the two highest quartiles of overall PA (0.26 m/s) compared with the lowest quartile. Participants in the highest quartile of sedentary time had 0.39 m/s higher PWV (95%CI: 0.20; 0.57) than those in the lowest quartile. Individuals achieving ≥30 min/day in MVPA had lower PWV (β = −0.35; 95%CI: −0.56; −0.14). Mutually adjusted analyses between MVPA and sedentary time and PWV changed the coefficients, although results from sedentary time remained more consistent. WC captured 44% of the association between MVPA and PWV. DBP explained 46% of the association between acceleration and PWV.ConclusionsPhysical activity was inversely related to PWV in young adults, whereas sedentary time was positively associated.Such associations were only partially mediated by WC and DBP.

Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Long‐Term Changes in Aortic Stiffness: The Whitehall II Study

“…Existing trials enrolled few participants and are short in duration, 20,21 limiting their generalizability and the ability to draw conclusive inferences from their findings. Cross-sectional studies have shown inverse associations between physical activity and various measures of arterial stiffness among younger 17,[30][31][32] and older adults. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Considering lower exercise levels could in principle be the consequence of, rather than the risk factor for, greater aortic stiffness, interpretation of the findings of cross-sectional studies are ambiguous.…”

“…8 Arterial stiffness has been shown to be associated with low levels of physical activity [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and sedentary behavior. 14,[17][18][19] However, previous studies are cross-sectional, include only 1 assessment of arterial stiffness, or are small, short-duration trials. 20,21 Reverse causality, an inherent limitation of crosssectional studies, has limited the ability to draw unbiased inferences from previous reports.…”

Sedentary Behavior and Arterial Stiffness in Adults with and without Metabolic Syndrome

“…Since both MetS and non-MetS groups demonstrated sufficient MVPA (i. e., > 30 min/day) the overall results suggest that sufficient MVPA does not negate the effects of Sed. Indeed, earlier studies examined the association between AS and Sed in apparently healthy populations [16,27], and despite the studies' different methodological approaches, they generally reported the deleterious effect of Sed on AS [16,27].…”

Accelerometer-assessed Physical Activity in Epidemiology

“…As it is open-source and an efficient method for processing and analysing raw data to obtain the key outcomes required for characterising habitual physical activity it has been used widely to analyse GENEActiv and ActiGraph data (e.g. 6,9,20,21,22,23,24,25,26). We have shown that the outcomes from GENEActiv and ActiGraph processed through GGIR are broadly comparable, although comparisons at lower magnitudes of acceleration may be problematic (20).…”

“…This is common practise in most studies (e.g. 6,9,21,22,23,24), but a notable exception is UK Biobank where the Axivity was worn on the dominant wrist (4). The next step is to examine the agreement between accelerometer brands as they are commonly used, i.e.…”