Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep consortium
ProPASS Publications
Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity and Cancer Incidence Among Nonexercising Adults
This was a study by the core team of ProPASS collaborators. This study in JAMA Oncology examines the association between vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) and cancer incidence among 22,398 non-exercising adults from the UK Biobank, followed-up for about 7 years. The study found even small amounts of VILPA, accrued in bouts of up to 1 or 2 minutes during daily activities, were associated with a lower risk of incident cancer. Specifically, 4.5 minutes/day accrued in short bouts was associated with a 20% lower risk of total cancer and a 31% lower risk of physical activity-related cancer (composite of 13 cancer sites known to be related to physical activity levels, such as colon and lung cancer ). These findings suggest that even brief bouts of vigorous physical activity integrated into daily life may be a feasible and effective strategy for cancer prevention. This may provide promising intervention strategies particularly among individuals who are unable or unmotivated to exercise.
Device-measured physical activity and cardiometabolic health: the Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep (ProPASS) consortium
The University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep (ProPASS) Consortium and the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub @ The Charles Perkins Centre provide a comprehensive study in the European Heart Journal delving into the interplay of physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behaviour from pooling data across 6 cohorts in 5 countries to assess cross-sectional associations with cardiometabolic markers such as high/low density lipoproteins, triglycerides, and body mass index. The study highlights every movement counts and underscores that reallocating time from sedentary behaviours to standing, light, or moderate-vigorous physical activities can have positive impacts on cardiometabolic health. Replacing 30 minutes/day of sitting with moderate-vigorous physical activity was associated with 0.63 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.79) kg/m2 lower body mass index. The findings emphasise finding the right balance of physical activity, sleep, and sedentary time.
Relationship of device measured physical activity type and posture with cardiometabolic health markers: pooled dose–response associations from the Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep Consortium
Aims/hypothesis
The aim of this study was to examine the dose–response associations of device-measured physical activity types and postures (sitting and standing time) with cardiometabolic health.
Methods
We conducted an individual participant harmonised meta-analysis of 12,095 adults (mean ± SD age 54.5±9.6 years; female participants 54.8%) from six cohorts with thigh-worn accelerometry data from the Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep (ProPASS) Consortium. Associations of daily walking, stair climbing, running, standing and sitting time with a composite cardiometabolic health score (based on standardised z scores) and individual cardiometabolic markers (BMI, waist circumference, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, HbA1c and total cholesterol) were examined cross-sectionally using generalised linear modelling and cubic splines.
Results
We observed more favourable composite cardiometabolic health (i.e. z score <0) with approximately 64 min/day walking (z score [95% CI] −0.14 [−0.25, −0.02]) and 5 min/day stair climbing (−0.14 [−0.24, −0.03]). We observed an equivalent magnitude of association at 2.6 h/day standing. Any amount of running was associated with better composite cardiometabolic health. We did not observe an upper limit to the magnitude of the dose–response associations for any activity type or standing. There was an inverse dose–response association between sitting time and composite cardiometabolic health that became markedly less favourable when daily durations exceeded 12.1 h/day. Associations for sitting time were no longer significant after excluding participants with prevalent CVD or medication use. The dose–response pattern was generally consistent between activity and posture types and individual cardiometabolic health markers.
Conclusions/interpretation
In this first activity type-specific analysis of device-based physical activity, ~64 min/day of walking and ~5.0 min/day of stair climbing were associated with a favourable cardiometabolic risk profile. The deleterious associations of sitting time were fully attenuated after exclusion of participants with prevalent CVD and medication use. Our findings on cardiometabolic health and durations of different activities of daily living and posture may guide future interventions involving lifestyle modification.