New research shows that shortening the sitting time significantly reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome in older adults – even among those who do not meet training guidelines or follow perfect diets.
A study published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging Emphasizes the importance of being physically active and restrictive behavior in improving metabolic health in physically active or inactive older adults.
Background
Physical activity is an essential lifestyle factor that strongly influences cardiovascular health. The current global guidelines recommend more than 150 minutes from moderate to powerful physical activity per week, together with restrictive sedentary behaviors for older adults, to improve metabolic health and to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance, abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension, which jointly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, especially in older adults.
Older adults spend most of their time in sitting activities. This sitting lifestyle, combined with a reduced level of physical activity, increases their risk of developing cardiometabolic abnormalities.
Existing evidence links excessive time spent on sedentary behavior to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. However, it remains uncertain whether sedentary behavior contributes independently to the metabolic risk or whether their negative impact can be weakened by regularly physical activity, according to current guidelines.
The current study was aimed at gaining deeper insights into the impact of sedentary behavior on the metabolic risk at physically active and inactive older adults, with a focus on a validated continuous metabolic syndrome riskoscore and considering their compliance with healthy eating behavior.
Study design
The current study used baseline data of the now-age study (the Northwestern University Aging Research Registry), a randomized controlled study in which the effect of a healthy diet on the biomarkers of inflammation in older European adults was investigated.
This study specifically analyzed basic line data on behavior of physical activity and metabolic risk factors in 871 older adults in the community (age category: 65-79 years) from four European countries.
The physical activity levels of the participants and the time spent in sedentary behavior were assessed for a week with the help of gear meters they wore during the hours. The percentage of the daily time spent on sedentary behavior was categorized on the basis of mathematically derived tertiles (a third of the total data) of sedentary behavior (low, average and high tertiles).
Five metabolic risk factors were analyzed and used to create a continuous metabolic syndrome risk score (CMSY). Moreover, the healthy eating habits of the participants were assessed with the help of food records.
Study findings
The study reported that participants spent an average of 60%, 37%and 3%of their awake hours on sedentary behavior, physical activities of light intensity and moderate to powerful physical activities respectively.
Participants with the least time spent in sedentary behavior (low tertile) had twice the amount of time in moderate to powerful physical activities compared to those spent at high time in sedentary behavior (high tertile).
About 50% of the research population was classified as physically active and performed at least 150 minutes from moderate to powerful physical activity per week. The majority of the physically active participants were Tertiel in the low sedentary behavior.
Risk of metabolic syndrome
De studie vond een significant lager risico op het metabool syndroom, gemeten met behulp van de continu metabool syndroomrisicoscore, bij fysiek actieve en inactieve deelnemers die een kortere tijdsduur doorbrachten in sedentair gedrag (laag tertiel), vergeleken met degenen die middelgrote en langere tijden in sedentair gedrag (gemiddeld terte en hoog terte en hoge tertegebied), ongeacht gezond eethust.
On the other hand, no significant difference in the risk of metabolic syndrome was observed between the medium and high sedentary behavioral tans in active or inactive participants. This finding suggests a potential threshold effect, in which the risk in particular increases more than 8.3 hours a day.
Further comparison between the active and inactive groups revealed that physically active participants have a significantly lower risk of metabolic syndrome among all sedentary behavioralists.
This finding indicates that 150 minutes of moderate to powerful physical activity per week can significantly improve metabolic health in older adults, even if they spend longer periods in sedentary behavior. It is important that the beneficial effect of physically actively active remained considerable after correction for the total MVPA time, which suggests that compliance with the guidelines for physical activities offers benefits, even with very active people.
Study of interest
The study finds that the shorter time spends time in sedentary behavior, the lower the risk of metabolic syndrome in older adults, regardless of their status of physical activity and healthy eating habits.
The research in particular emphasizes that the lowest risk of metabolic syndrome is associated with physical activity behavior characterized by shorter time spent on sedentary behavior in combination with higher adhesion to current moderate to powerful guidelines for physical activity.
The study also notes that physically inactive participants who spend less time in sedentary behavior can achieve better metabolic health, despite low levels from moderate to powerful physical activity. Since less time in sedentary behavior mainly translates into physical activity of lighter intensity in more time, this finding suggests that physical activity of light intensity-even under moderate intensity-meaning-meaning metabolic health benefits can offer health benefits. This is particularly encouraging for older adults who may find it a challenge to achieve moderate to powerful goals for physical activity.
The study also showed that sedentary behavior has an independent association with the metabolic risk – even when they account for physical activity and diet – what the need for tackling the sitting time as a separate behavioral risk factor strengthen.
The study did not include older adults with vulnerability, dementia or severe heart conditions, which can limit the generalizability of the findings to healthier, community -in -life older populations. Moreover, due to the cross -sectional design, the study could not determine the causality of observed associations.