Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.

<h4>Background</h4>Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly re...

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Main Authors: Rema Ramakrishnan, Aiden Doherty, Karl Smith-Byrne, Kazem Rahimi, Derrick Bennett, Mark Woodward, Rosemary Walmsley, Terence Dwyer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS Medicine
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487
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author Rema Ramakrishnan
Aiden Doherty
Karl Smith-Byrne
Kazem Rahimi
Derrick Bennett
Mark Woodward
Rosemary Walmsley
Terence Dwyer
author_facet Rema Ramakrishnan
Aiden Doherty
Karl Smith-Byrne
Kazem Rahimi
Derrick Bennett
Mark Woodward
Rosemary Walmsley
Terence Dwyer
author_sort Rema Ramakrishnan
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.<h4>Conclusions</h4>In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.
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spelling doaj.art-0a440ca02b624ac48e342cf26d0a9e282022-12-22T04:10:34ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Medicine1549-12771549-16762021-01-01181e100348710.1371/journal.pmed.1003487Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.Rema RamakrishnanAiden DohertyKarl Smith-ByrneKazem RahimiDerrick BennettMark WoodwardRosemary WalmsleyTerence Dwyer<h4>Background</h4>Higher levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, uncertainty exists on whether the inverse relationship between PA and incidence of CVD is greater at the highest levels of PA. Past studies have mostly relied on self-reported evidence from questionnaire-based PA, which is crude and cannot capture all PA undertaken. We investigated the association between accelerometer-measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA and incident CVD.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>We obtained accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015, for 90,211 participants without prior or concurrent CVD in the UK Biobank cohort. Participants in the lowest category of total PA smoked more, had higher body mass index and C-reactive protein, and were diagnosed with hypertension. PA was associated with 3,617 incident CVD cases during 440,004 person-years of follow-up (median (interquartile range [IQR]): 5.2 (1.2) years) using Cox regression models. We found a linear dose-response relationship for PA, whether measured as moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, or as total volume, with risk of incident of CVD. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for increasing quarters of the PA distribution relative to the lowest fourth were for moderate-intensity PA: 0.71 (0.65, 0.77), 0.59 (0.54, 0.65), and 0.46 (0.41, 0.51); for vigorous-intensity PA: 0.70 (0.64, 0.77), 0.54 (0.49,0.59), and 0.41 (0.37,0.46); and for total volume of PA: 0.73 (0.67, 0.79), 0.63 (0.57, 0.69), and 0.47 (0.43, 0.52). We took account of potential confounders but unmeasured confounding remains a possibility, and while removal of early deaths did not affect the estimated HRs, we cannot completely dismiss the likelihood that reverse causality has contributed to the findings. Another possible limitation of this work is the quantification of PA intensity-levels based on methods validated in relatively small studies.<h4>Conclusions</h4>In this study, we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487
spellingShingle Rema Ramakrishnan
Aiden Doherty
Karl Smith-Byrne
Kazem Rahimi
Derrick Bennett
Mark Woodward
Rosemary Walmsley
Terence Dwyer
Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
PLoS Medicine
title Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
title_full Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
title_fullStr Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
title_full_unstemmed Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
title_short Accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease: Evidence from the UK Biobank cohort study.
title_sort accelerometer measured physical activity and the incidence of cardiovascular disease evidence from the uk biobank cohort study
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003487
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