This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Metabolic syndrome risk falls with increasing physical activity
Adults who perform double the recommended 150 weekly minutes of moderate leisure-time physical activity can reduce their risk for developing metabolic syndrome by 20%, according to findings from a Chinese meta-analysis.
“In recent years, evidence supporting the preventive effect of regular physical activity for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and [metabolic syndrome] has grown exponentially,” Dongdong Zhang, of the department of preventive medicine at Shenzhen University Health Sciences Center in Guangdong, China, and colleagues wrote. “Recent public health guidelines recommend a minimum of 150 min of moderate [physical activity] or 75 min of vigorous [physical activity] per week to maintain general health. However, whether health benefits can be accrued at a lower [physical activity] volume and to what degree the [physical activity] can reduce the risk of [metabolic syndrome] are unclear.”
Zhang and colleagues analyzed data from 18 studies including 76,699 adults assessing the association between leisure-time physical activity and risk for metabolic syndrome, quantifying all group-level exposure estimates to the common unit of metabolic equivalent hours per week. All leisure-time physical activity was self-reported by questionnaires or in-person interview. Researchers used random-effects models to estimate the pooled RR for metabolic syndrome per 10 metabolic equivalent hours per week of leisure-time physical activity; restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose-response association.
Across studies, 13,871 participants developed metabolic syndrome during a median follow-up of 8.2 years.
For every 10 metabolic equivalent hours per week increase in physical activity, researchers observed an 8% reduction in risk for incident metabolic syndrome (pooled RR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89-0.96).
In the restricted cubic splines model, compared with inactive participants, the risk for developing metabolic syndrome was 10% lower for participants who met the public health recommendation of 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity (10 metabolic equivalents per week; RR = 0.9; 95% CI 0.86-0.94). When doubling the recommended amount of moderate physical activity, risk for incident metabolic syndrome was reduced by 20% (RR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.74-0.88); completing 70 metabolic equivalent hours of physical activity per week reduced metabolic syndrome risk by more than half (RR = 0.47; 95% CI 0.34-0.64), according to researchers.
“Our findings provide quantitative data suggesting that any amount of [leisure-time physical activity] is better than none and that more [leisure-time physical activity] substantially exceeding the current [physical activity]-recommended levels is associated with an additional reduction in [metabolic syndrome] risk,” the researchers wrote. “Realizing the benefits of habitual [leisure-time physical activity] could substantially improve health and alleviate the economic burden. Given that a sedentary lifestyle is common and that [metabolic syndrome] is a growing health problem, [leisure-time physical activity] promotion may achieve large benefits at a population level.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosures:The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.