Longitudinal association between physical activity and the risk of incident metabolic syndrome in middle-aged adults in Germany
Laura Cleven, Janina Krell‐Roesch, Steffen Schmidt, Anna Dziuba, Klaus Bös, Darko Jekauc, Alexander Wöll
Abstract
We examined the longitudinal association between physical activity (PA) and the risk of incident metabolic syndrome (MetS) among middle-aged, community-dwelling adults, including 591 individuals (314 females; mean (SD) age, 43.8 (8.5) years) who were free of MetS at baseline. Habitual and sports-related PA was assessed by a self-reported questionnaire. MetS was defined based on HDL-cholesterols, triglycerides, glucose or HbA1c, blood pressure, and waist circumference. We calculated Cox proportional hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using regression analyses. Over a mean follow-up of 12.5 years, 205 participants developed incident MetS. Four different sports-related PA measures were associated with a decreased risk of incident MetS: (1) Engaging in ≥ 75 min/week (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.53-0.94), (2) maintaining a continuously high amount from baseline to follow-up of ≥ 75 min/week (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46-0.94), (3) starting from < 150 min/week at baseline to ≥ 150 min/week at follow-up (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.45-0.94), and (4) increasing from < 16.6 MET-hours/week at baseline to ≥ 16.6 MET-hours/week at follow-up (HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.31-0.71). Thus, maintaining, starting or increasing sports-related PA is associated with a lower risk of incident MetS.