Association of activity behaviours and patterns with cardiovascular risk factors in Swiss middle-aged adults: The CoLaus study

The impact of the combination between physical activity (PA) and sedentary (SE) levels on cardiovascular health is poorly known. We assessed the association of activity behaviours and patterns with cardiovascular risk factors in the general population (The CoLaus study, Switzerland, 2014–2017). 2605 adults (54.4% women, age range 45–86 years) had PA and SE levels measured for 14 days using wrist-worn accelerometry. Four activity behaviours: “Couch potato”: low PA & high SE; “Light mover”: low PA & low SE; “Sedentary exerciser”: high PA & high SE, and “Busy bee”: high PA & low SE; and three activity patterns: “Inactive”, “Weekend warrior”, and “Regularly active” were defined. Smoking, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes were assessed. Relative to ‘Couch potatoes', ‘Sedentary exercisers' and ‘Busy bees' had a lower likelihood of smoking: Odds Ratio (95% confidence interval): 0.40 (0.27–0.61) and 0.62 (0.47–0.81), obesity: 0.43 (0.29–0.63) and 0.41 (0.31–0.54), and diabetes: 0.53 (0.30–0.95) and 0.62 (0.42–0.89), respectively. Relative to ‘Inactives', ‘Weekend warriors' and ‘Regularly actives' had a lower likelihood of smoking: 0.58 (0.43–0.78) and 0.56 (0.44–0.72), obesity: 0.41 (0.30–0.56) and 0.41 (0.32–0.53), hypertension: 0.66 (0.51–0.85) and 0.72 (0.59–0.89), and diabetes: 0.61 (0.38–0.98) and 0.60 (0.42–0.86), respectively. High PA is associated with a favourable cardiovascular risk profile, even when concomitant with high SE or when PA is concentrated on weekends. These findings suggest that being “Sedentary exerciser” or “Weekend warrior” might be sufficient to prevent cardiovascular disease.