Are sedentary behavior and physical activity independently associated with cardiometabolic benefits? The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

Background: Whether physical activity can reduce cardiometabolic risk particularly in understudied populations such as US Hispanics/Latinos is of public health interest. We prospectively examined the association of physical activity and cardiometabolic biomarkers in n = 8049 participants of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, a community-based cohort study of 16,415 adults aged 18-74 yr who self-identified as Hispanic/Latino from four US urban centers.

Methods: We assessed physical activity using accelerometry in 2008-2011 at visit 1. We assessed cardiometabolic biomarkers twice: once at visit 1 and collected a second measure in 2014-2017 at visit 2. We used survey linear regression models with changes in cardiometabolic markers as the dependent variables and quartiles of sedentary behavior or whether adults met guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as the independent variables.

Results: In normoglycemic adults without cardiovascular disease, but not in adults with evidence of cardiometabolic disease, those who were in the lowest quartile for sedentary behavior (< 10.08 h/day) had a significant decline in mean LDL-cholesterol of - 3.94 mg/dL (95% CI: - 6.37, - 1.52) compared to adults in the highest quartile (≥13.0 h/day) who exhibited a significant increase in LDL-cholesterol of 0.14 mg/dL (95% CI, - 2.15,2.42) over the six year period (P < 0.02 in fully adjusted models.) There was also a trend toward lower mean increase in HbA1c comparing the lowest with the highest quartile of sedentary behavior. Overall regardless of glycemic level or evidence of cardiometabolic disease, adults who met guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at visit 1, had significantly lower mean increases in level of fasting glucose compared to adults not meeting guidelines in fully adjusted models.

Conclusions: In this cohort of Hispanics/Latinos, being free of cardiometabolic disease and having low levels of sedentary behavior were associated with health benefits. Among all adults regardless of cardiometabolic disease, meeting guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with health benefits. Overall these data suggest that an active lifestyle may blunt the association of advancing age with worsening cardiometabolic risk factors.