Association between physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and self-reported health: population-based cross-sectional analysis of individuals with diabetes and the general population

Background Diabetes represents a major health burden both at the individual and societal levels. Physical activity is always recommended to reduce the incidence of diabetes and its complications, but its effects on self-reported health are lacking. This study aimed to explore how physical activity and sedentary behaviors were associated with self-reported health in individuals with diabetes and to compare them to individuals from the general population. Methods A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the 2019 follow-up survey of a Swiss cohort of individuals with diabetes (CoDiab-VD; n=649) and the 2017 Swiss Health Survey (SHS; n=21’430). We assessed the association between self-reported health and three exposure variables (physical activity and sedentary behaviors operationalized as sitting time and sitting interruption) with three crude and three adjusted ordinal logistic regression models for two groups of individuals with diabetes (CoDiab-VD,SHS) and the general population (SHS). Results Individuals with diabetes were less active and more sedentary than those of the general population. A significant association between higher physical activity levels and better self-reported health was observed, for both individuals with diabetes and the general population. A more sedentary behavior, defined by a longer sitting time, seemed to be associated, with poorer self-reported health only in CoDiab-VD population. Conclusions Physical activity is strongly associated with better self-reported health, and sedentary behaviors tend to have a negative association. Sedentary behaviors should be considered when planning lifestyle interventions due to their effect on self-reported health. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT01902043