Background: Current guidelines suggest engaging in a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) each week to support overall health. However, the effect of concentrated versus evenly distributed physical activity (PA) on health outcomes remains uncertain. This study aims to investigate the associations of "weekend warrior" pattern, where most MVPA is completed in 1 to 2 days, and a more evenly spread MVPA pattern with mortality risk.
Methods: Data from the UK Biobank were used, with participants having a full week of device-measured PA data from 2013 to 2015. Three MVPA patterns were defined: inactive, active weekend warrior, and active regular. The relationships between PA patterns and mortality risk were investigated using the Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: During an 8.1-year median follow-up, 3965 adults died from all causes, including 667 from cardiovascular disease and 1780 from cancer. Both the active weekend warrior group (all-cause death: hazard ratio [HR], 0.68 [95% CI, 0.64-0.74]; cardiovascular disease death: HR, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.58-0.83]; cancer death: HR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.71-0.89]) and the active regular group (all-cause death: HR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.68-0.81]; cardiovascular disease death: HR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.61-0.94]; cancer death: HR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.76-0.99]) demonstrated a lower mortality risk compared with the inactive group after following the recommended 150 minutes of MVPA per week. Furthermore, there was no discernible difference in the mortality risk between the active regular group and the active weekend warrior group.
Conclusions: Engaging in PA concentrated within 1 to 2 days was related with a similar reduction in mortality risk as more evenly spread activity. Our findings are particularly significant for individuals who find it challenging to engage in regular PA due to time constraints.
Keywords: accelerometer; death; physical activity pattern; prospective study; weekend warrior.