Increase in sedentary time in childhood linked to enlarged left ventricle later in life
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Key takeaways:
- People whose sedentary time rose from age 11 to 24 years were more likely to have a progressively enlarged left ventricle from age 17 to 24 years.
- Sedentary time and relative wall thickness were not linked.
In a longitudinal cohort study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, people who had greater amounts of sedentary time in childhood were more likely to have an increase in left ventricular mass as a young adult.
“We recently published in a cross-sectional study that sedentary time was associated with 10% higher cardiac mass in adolescents,” Andrew O. Agbaje, MD, MPH, physician and clinical epidemiologist with epidemiologist with the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, and the University of Exeter, U.K., told Healio. “However, there is no longitudinal evidence on the role of sedentary time from childhood through young adulthood with changes in cardiac structure. This was the rationale for the current study.”
The current analysis included 766 children (55% female) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in the U.K. who had sedentary time measured by an accelerometer at age 11, 15 and 24 years and had complete cardiac structural measures taken at age 17 and 24 years.
The outcomes of interest were LV mass indexed for height2.7 (LVMI2.7) and relative wall thickness, both measured by echocardiography.
Average sedentary time was 360 minutes per day for males and 364 minutes per day for females at age 11 years, 467 minutes per day for males and 481 minutes per day for females at age 15 years and 527 minutes per day for males and 535 minutes per day for females at age 24 years.
“In this study, we observed that sedentary time increased from about 6 hours per day in childhood to about 9 hours per day in young adulthood,” Agbaje told Healio. “Unfortunately, light-intensity physical activity reduced from 6 hours per day in childhood to 3 hours per day in adulthood. Thus, the increase in sedentariness is an exact time lost in light-intensity physical activity.”
LVMI2.7 was higher in males than in females by approximately 4 g/m2.7 at age 17 and 24 years, but there was no difference by sex in relative wall thickness, Agbaje found.
In a multivariable-adjusted model, each 1-minute increase in sedentary time from age 11 years to age 24 years was associated with an increase in LVMI2.7 from age 17 to 24 years in the total cohort (effect estimate, 0.004 g/m2.7; 95% CI, 0.001-0.006; P = .002) and in females (effect estimate, 0.009 g/m2.7; 95% CI, 0.005-0.012; P < .0001).
There was no relationship between increase in sedentary time and changes in relative wall thickness for the total cohort, males or females, Agbaje found.
“In a general community of children, sedentary time increased by at least 3 hours during growth from childhood through young adulthood. This increase in sedentary time was strongly associated with increased heart size or enlarged heart,” Agbaje told Healio. “This might indicate a high risk of heart damage and heart disease in later life. However, it appears that engaging in light-intensity physical activity may reverse the worsening effect of sedentary time on the heart.”
In clinical practice, “doctors can discourage sedentary behavior and educate patients and caregivers on the severe risk that sedentary behavior from childhood may pose to the heart,” Agbaje said in an interview. “In addition, doctors may suggest light-intensity physical activity such as taking a long walk of 3 hours per day to enable better cardiac structure and function.”
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Agbaje A. Abstract 85279. Presented at: European Society of Cardiology Congress; Aug. 25-28, 2023; Amsterdam (hybrid meeting).
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