Associations Between Physical Activity Patterns and Cardiovascular Events and Risk Factors: Cross-Sectional and Prospective Studies

Fabrizio Cominetti; Julien Vaucher; Pedro Marques-Vidal; Vanessa Kraege

doi:10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.101324

Associations Between Physical Activity Patterns and Cardiovascular Events and Risk Factors: Cross-Sectional and Prospective Studies

JACC Adv. 2024 Oct 9;3(11):101324. doi: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.101324. eCollection 2024 Nov.

Authors

Fabrizio Cominetti¹, Julien Vaucher^{1

2}, Pedro Marques-Vidal¹, Vanessa Kraege³

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
² Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Specialties, Hospital and University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
³ Medical and Innovation and Clinical Research Directorates, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Background: Moderate-intensity physical activity (PA) is recommended for health benefits, but optimal PA timing regarding cardiovascular disease (CVD) is debated.

Objectives: The authors assessed the impact of differing PA patterns on CVD risk factors and outcomes.

Methods: Data from 2 surveys (S1 and S2) of the CoLaus-PsyCoLaus study (2,465 and 1,692 participants, respectively; 55.3% [54.3%] females; mean age 61.2 ± 9.7 years [64.4 ± 9.5]), conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland. PA was assessed using a wrist-worn accelerometer, and PA patterns were assessed using K-means clustering.

Results: Morning PA was positively associated with hypertension (multivariable-adjusted OR: 1.36 [95% CI: 1.00-1.84]) in S1, similar trend in S2. No significant association was found between PA clusters and total, HDL-, and LDL-cholesterol or triglycerides. Morning PA was positively associated with hypolipidemic drug treatment: 1.88 (1.07-3.30) in S2. Evenly distributed daily PA was positively associated with diabetes: 1.82 (95% CI: 1.06-3.12) in S2, with a similar trend in S1. In the outcome analysis, the early morning PA cluster (7 am-12 am) and the evenly distributed daily PA cluster led to a higher risk of CVD events (HR: 3.33 [95% CI: 1.08-10.3] and 3.16 [95% CI: 1.04-9.57], respectively).

Conclusions: In a population-based study, we observed a higher risk for cardiovascular events in participants whose daily PA occurred predominantly in the early morning (7 am-12 am) or was evenly distributed throughout the day. No PA pattern was consistently associated with hypertension, blood lipids, or diabetes markers.

Keywords: cardiovascular; chronoactivity; chronotype; epidemiology; physical activity.