Achieving >7 minutes of vigorous physical activity daily was associated with reduced odds of overweight status (OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.33-0.95) and elevated systolic blood pressure.
Cross-Sectional (n=605)
Yes
Does vigorous physical activity improve cardiometabolic risk factors in youth?
Vigorous physical activity, but not moderate or light, is consistently associated with improved cardiometabolic risk factors in youth.
p-value: p=<.001
OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between physical activity (PA) intensities and cardiometabolic risk factors in youth. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using data from the 2008 Healthy Hearts Prospective Cohort Study of Physical Activity and Cardiometabolic Health in Youth. SETTING: Rural and urban communities in Alberta, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 605 youth aged 9 to 17 years. Youth were on average aged 12.1 years, 248 were boys (41%), and 157 were overweight or obese (26%). MAIN EXPOSURE: Actical accelerometer-measured PA intensity. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The primary outcome was body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) z score. Secondary outcome measures included waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, and cardiorespiratory fitness (maximal oxygen consumption [VdotO2max]). RESULTS: Body mass index z score, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure decreased and VdotO2max increased in a dose-response manner across tertiles of vigorous PA (adjusted P < .001). No significant differences in cardiometabolic risk factors were seen across tertiles of moderate or light PA in multivariable analyses. Achieving more than 7 minutes of vigorous PA daily was associated with a reduced adjusted odds ratio of overweight status (0.56; 95% CI, 0.33-0.95) and elevated systolic blood pressure (0.36; 95% CI, 0.16-0.79). The odds of overweight status and elevated blood pressure decreased with increasing time and intensity of PA. CONCLUSIONS: Only vigorous PA was consistently associated with lower levels of waist circumference, body mass index z score, systolic blood pressure, and increased cardiorespiratory fitness in youth. These findings underscore the importance of vigorous PA in guidelines for children and adolescents.
Hay et al. (Mon,) conducted a cross-sectional in Cardiometabolic risk in youth (n=605). Vigorous physical activity vs. Lower levels of physical activity was evaluated on Body mass index z score (p=<.001). Achieving >7 minutes of vigorous physical activity daily was associated with reduced odds of overweight status (OR 0.56; 95% CI 0.33-0.95) and elevated systolic blood pressure.