Differences in Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Between Middle-Aged Men and Women in Japan: A Compositional Data Analysis

Gender differences in the proportion of Japanese parents meeting 24-h movement guidelines and associations with weight status

OBJECTIVES

Parents' healthy behaviors are important for both their health and role models for their children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adherence to the three recommendations associated with health in the Canadian 24-h movement or Japanese physical activity (PA) guidelines and their relationship with weight status (underweight or obesity) in Japanese parents.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included 425 mothers and 237 fathers. Meeting the 24-h movement guidelines was defined as: ≥150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (Canada) or at least 60 min/day of MVPA (Japan), ≤8 h/day of sedentary time which includes ≤3 h of recreational screen time, and 7 to 9 h/night of sleep. MVPA and sedentary time were accelerometer-determined while screen time and sleep duration were self-reported.

RESULTS

The prevalence of mothers meeting all three recommendations was 30.6% using Canadian PA guidelines and 20.7% using Japanese PA guidelines, while that of fathers was 10.6% and 8.0%, respectively. Mothers not meeting the sedentary behavior recommendation had a lower odds ratio and those not meeting Japanese PA recommendations had a higher odds ratio for underweight compared to mothers meeting the recommendations, adjusted for age and area socioeconomic status.

CONCLUSIONS

The screen time recommendation and Japanese PA recommendation were associated with underweight in mothers. None of the recommendations was associated with weight status in fathers. Further research is needed to understand the relationships among movement behaviors and weight status, particularly among Japanese women, whose routine behaviors, such as household activities, may be misclassified by a questionnaire.

Sex Differences in Physical Activity Levels and Sitting Time in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

PURPOSE

While research demonstrates low levels of physical activity (PA) among adults living with atrial fibrillation (AF), there is limited evidence investigating sex differences in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time in this population. The primary aim was to examine sex differences in MVPA levels and sitting time between women and men with AF. Secondary aims explored sex differences in sociodemographic factors, outcome expectations, and task self-efficacy toward PA levels.

METHODS

This was a subanalysis of the CHAMPLAIN-AF cohort study. Women and men with AF completed a survey, including the Short-Form International Physical Activity Questionnaire.

RESULTS

A total of 210 women (median = 66.0 yr: 95% CI, 63.5-68.0) and 409 men (median = 66.0 yr: 95% CI, 64.0-67.0) were included. No sex differences were observed in median weekly MVPA (60 min/wk: 95% CI, 0-120 in women vs 120 min/wk: 95% CI, 85-150 in men) and daily sitting time (5.5 hr/d: 95% CI, 5.0-6.0 in women vs 6.0 hr/d: 95% CI, 5.0-6.0 in men). Women engaged in significantly less vigorous-intensity PA than men ( P = .03) and demonstrated significantly lower task self-efficacy ( P < .01). Significant positive correlations in PA levels with outcome expectations (mostly weak) and task self-efficacy (mostly strong) were observed in both sexes.

CONCLUSION

Most women and men with AF did not meet the global MVPA guidelines but met the sitting time recommendation. Women presented with lower vigorous-intensity physical activity levels and confidence than men. Strategies to increase physical activity behavior, considering sociodemographic factors and task self-efficacy, are needed and may differ between sexes.

Physical Activity Knowledge and Personal Habits with Recommendations for Patients: Self-Assessment by Primary Care Physicians

Primary care physicians (PCPs) should be active and reliable promoters of physical activity (PA), but there is no strong evidence that their knowledge and personal habits contribute to this. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of PA recommendations provided by PCPs to patients in terms of their self-assessed PA knowledge and personal habits. This study used a cross-sectional design and data were collected through a self-reported online questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 202 PCPs from a large Lithuanian city, Kaunas, of which 122 were females (60.4%) and 80 were males (39.6%). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 29 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for Windows. The findings show that the frequency of recommendations related to providing PA to patients is statistically significantly dependent on PCP health-friendly or partially favorable PA habits, their self-assessed level of knowledge about physical activity, and their self-assessed competence related to providing PA recommendations to patients, but this is not statistically dependent on objectively assessed level of knowledge related to PA.

Seven-plus hours of daily sedentary time and the subsequent risk of breast cancer: Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study

This study aimed to investigate the association between daily sedentary time and the risk of breast cancer (BC) in a large Japanese population. The participants were 36,023 women aged 35-69 years from the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for BC incidence in relation to time spent sedentarily (categorical variables: <7 and ≥7 hours/day [h/d]). Additionally, the associations of BC incidence to the joint effect of sedentary time with each component of physical activity, such as leisure-time metabolic equivalents (METs), frequency of leisure-time physical activity, and daily walking time, were examined. During 315,189 person-years of follow-up, 554 incident cases of BC were identified. When compared to participants who spent <7 h/d sedentary, those who spent ≥7 h/d sedentary have a significantly higher risk of BC (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.07-1.71). The corresponding HRs among participants who spent ≥7 h/d sedentary with more physical activity, such as ≥1 h/d for leisure-time METs, ≥3 days/week of leisure-time physical activity, and ≥1 h/d of daily walking were 1.58 (95% CI, 1.11-2.25), 1.77 (95% CI, 1.20-2.61), and 1.42 (95% CI, 1.10-1.83), respectively, compared with those who spent <7 h/d sedentary. This study found that spending ≥7 h/d of sedentary time is associated with the risk of BC. Neither leisure-time physical activity nor walking had a BC-preventive effect in those with ≥7 h/d of sedentary time.

Device-measured movement behaviours in over 20,000 China Kadoorie Biobank participants

BACKGROUND

Movement behaviours, including physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep have been shown to be associated with several chronic diseases. However, they have not been objectively measured in large-scale prospective cohort studies in low-and middle-income countries. We aim to describe the patterns of device-measured movement behaviours collected in the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) study.

METHODS

During 2020 and 2021, a random subset of 25,087 surviving CKB individuals participated in the 3rd resurvey of the CKB. Among them, 22,511 (89.7%) agreed to wear an Axivity AX3 wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer for seven consecutive days to assess their habitual movement behaviours. We developed a machine-learning model to infer time spent in four movement behaviours [i.e. sleep, sedentary behaviour, light intensity physical activity (LIPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)]. Descriptive analyses were performed for wear-time compliance and patterns of movement behaviours by different participant characteristics.

RESULTS

Data from 21,897 participants (aged 65.4 ± 9.1 years; 35.4% men) were received for demographic and wear-time analysis, with a median wear-time of 6.9 days (IQR: 6.1-7.0). Among them, 20,370 eligible participants were included in movement behavior analyses. On average, they had 31.1 mg/day (total acceleration) overall activity level, accumulated 7.7 h/day (32.3%) of sleep time, 8.8 h/day (36.6%) sedentary, 5.7 h/day (23.9%) in light physical activity, and 104.4 min/day (7.2%) in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. There was an inverse relationship between age and overall acceleration with an observed decline of 5.4 mg/day (17.4%) per additional decade. Women showed a higher activity level than men (32.3 vs 28.8 mg/day) and there was a marked geographical disparity in the overall activity level and time allocation.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first large-scale accelerometer data collected among Chinese adults, which provides rich and comprehensive information about device-measured movement behaviour patterns. This resource will enhance our knowledge about the potential relevance of different movement behaviours for chronic disease in Chinese adults.

The Structure of the Relationship between Physical Activity and Psychosocial Functioning of Women and Men during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Poland

Since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a serious crisis in many countries around the world, it is important to conduct empirical research aimed at identifying risks and factors protecting the functioning of people affected by it. For this reason, the goals of the present research were to determine the level of physical activity and the severity of symptoms characteristic of mental disorders, cognitive disorders and the quality of social functioning, as well as the structure of the relationship between physical activity and psychosocial functioning of 226 women and 226 men during the COVID-19 epidemic in Eastern Poland. The research was conducted using the IPAQ-SF Questionnaire, GHQ-28 Questionnaires, TUS Test-6/9 version, the original SFS Scale and a self-developed sociodemographic survey. The collected data indicate that women as compared to men show lower levels of weekly physical activity, walking, moderate activity, vigorous activity and quality of functioning in family relationships, but higher severity of mental health disorders, somatic symptoms, functional disorders, depressive symptoms, cognitive disorders, perceptual work disorders, attention deficits and higher quality of functioning in work relationships. On the other hand, the structural model indicates that physical activity, interacting with mental health disorders and cognitive disorders, is positively associated with the social functioning of the respondents, and gender is the moderator of the occurring dependencies. This suggests that physical activity adapted to the condition of health may be an important component of gender-individualized psychopreventive interventions.