TOPLINE

Among adults who did not engage in leisure-time exercise, engagement in brief, intermittent bouts of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity during day-to-day routines was associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a dose-response pattern.

METHODOLOGY

• Unstructured, unplanned activities of daily living can help raise overall physical activity levels. Prior studies have shown that very brief, higher-intensity bursts of such activity are linked to lower the risk for several adverse health outcomes, but their association with developing T2D remains unclear.
• To investigate this, researchers analyzed the prospective data of 22,706 participants from the UK Biobank (mean age, 62.3 years; 56.4% women) who reported no leisure-time exercise and had no T2D at baseline.
• Wrist-worn accelerometers were used to derive the daily duration and frequency of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA; bouts lasting up to 1 minute) and its moderate-to-vigorous equivalent (MV-ILPA; bouts lasting up to 3 minutes).
• Accelerometer data were considered valid if the device was worn for at least 16 h/d on at least 3 days, including at least 1 weekend day.
• Newly developed T2D was identified through linked primary care records, hospital records, and death registries using diagnostic codes, with an average follow-up duration of 7.9 years.

TAKEAWAY

• During the follow-up period, 665 participants developed T2D. Daily durations of both VILPA and MV-ILPA showed inverse, L-shaped associations with newly developed T2D.
• A median duration of 3.9 min/d of VILPA was linked to a 36% lower risk of developing T2D than 0 min/d (hazard ratio [HR], 0.64; 95% CI, 0.52-0.79), and a median duration of 25.3 min/d of MV-ILPA was linked to a 46% lower risk than a minimal referent of 3.9 min/d (HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.42-0.71).
• VILPA frequency showed a near-linear inverse association with newly developed T2D, with a median of 10.4 vs 0 bouts/d corresponding to an HR of 0.64 (95% CI, 0.51-0.81).
• MV-ILPA frequency had a U-shaped nonlinear dose-response association, with greatest risk reduction seen at about 56 bouts/d vs a minimal referent of 8.7 bouts/d (HR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.39-0.76).

IN PRACTICE

“This evidence highlights the potential of incidental physical activity to offer a practical alternative for adults who do not exercise regularly,” the authors wrote.

“These interventions have focused on creating awareness of the health benefits of micropattern activities, helping individuals identify feasible VILPA opportunities across different contexts within their existing daily routines (eg, climbing stairs or walking briskly to the shop),” they added.

SOURCE

The study was led by Kar Hau Chong, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. It was published online in Diabetes Care.

LIMITATIONS

Wrist-worn accelerometers may have underestimated VILPA and MV-ILPA because of inherent limitations in capturing activities such as walking uphill or carrying heavy loads. Accelerometry also cannot capture resistive load or perceived exertion which could have led to residual confounding. Reverse causation from undiagnosed prediabetes at baseline could not be fully ruled out.

DISCLOSURES

The study was funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council investigator grant and a National Heart Foundation of Australia grant. One author disclosed serving as a paid consultant for Complement 1, a US-based company, and another disclosed serving as an advisor to and holding equity in Longevity League, Ltd, also a US-based company.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.