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Purpose: This study aimed to identify physical activity patterns and examine their association with cardiometabolic biomarkers in a cross-sectional design. Methods: Overall 6072 participants (mean age, 60.2 yr; SD 8.6 yr, 50% women) from The Maastricht Study provided daily physical activity data collected with thigh-worn activPAL3 accelerometers. The patterns of daily physical activity over weekdays and weekend days were identified by using Group Based Trajectory Modeling. Cardiometabolic biomarkers included body mass index, waist circumference, office blood pressure, glucose, HbA1c, and cholesterol levels. Associations between the physical activity patterns and cardiometabolic outcomes were examined using the analyses of covariance adjusted for sex, age, education, smoking, and diet. Because of statistically significant interaction, the analyses were stratified by type 2 diabetes status. Results: Overall, seven physical activity patterns were identified: consistently inactive (21% of participants), consistently low active (41%), active on weekdays (15%), early birds (2%), consistently moderately active (7%), weekend warriors (8%), and consistently highly active (6%). The consistently inactive and low active patterns had higher body mass index, waist, and glucose levels compared with the consistently moderately and highly active patterns, and these associations were more pronounced for participants with type 2 diabetes. The more irregular patterns accumulated moderate daily total activity levels but had rather similar cardiometabolic profiles compared with the consistently active groups. Conclusions: The cardiometabolic profile was most favorable in the consistently highly active group. All patterns accumulating moderate to high levels of daily total physical activity had similar health profile suggesting that the amount of daily physical activity rather than the pattern is more important for cardiometabolic health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective strategies to reverse the increasing trend of sedentary behavior after retirement are needed. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of 12-month activity tracker-based intervention on daily total and prolonged sedentary time (≥60 minutes) among recent retirees.Methods: Randomization to intervention and control groups was performed to 231 retirees (mean age 65.2 [SD 1.1] years, 83% women). Intervention participants wore a consumer-based wrist-worn activity tracker (Polar Loop 2, Polar, Kempele, Finland), including daily activity goal, every day and night for 12 months. The activity tracker also gave vibrating reminders to break up uninterrupted inactivity periods after 55 minutes. A wrist-worn triaxial ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer was used to measure sedentary time at baseline and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month time points.Results: The use of an activity tracker did not reduce daily total or prolonged sedentary time over 12 months (p values for time * group interaction 0.39 and 0.27, respectively). In the post hoc analysis focusing on short- and medium-term effects on prolonged sedentary time, no differences between the intervention and control groups over 3 months were found, but a tendency for a greater decrease in prolonged sedentary time in the intervention group over 6 months was seen (mean difference in changes between the groups 29 minutes, 95% CI -2 to 61).Conclusions: The activity tracker with inactivity alerts did not elicit changes in sedentary time over 12 months among recent retirees. Alternative approaches may be needed to achieve long-term changes in sedentary time among retirees. Clinical Trials registration Number: NCT03320746. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to identify accelerometer-measured daily physical activity patterns, and to examine how they associate with health-related physical fitness among aging workers.Methods: The study population consisted of 263 participants (mean age 62.4 years, SD 1.0) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study, who used wrist-worn ActiGraph accelerometer for at least 1 week including both workdays and days off. Health-related physical fitness measures included body composition (waist circumference, bioimpedance), cardiorespiratory fitness (bicycle ergometer test), and muscular fitness (push-up and chair rise tests).Results: Based on the latent class trajectory analysis, 6 trajectories were identified for workdays showing variation in activity level on working hours and on evening hours. Moderate activity during working hours and increase of activity level in the evening was associated with the most favorable health-related fitness in comparison to low activity throughout the workday: waist circumference 90.0 cm (95% confidence interval [CI] 85.5-94.5) versus 99.5 cm (95% CI 96.8-102.3), fat mass 13.9 kg (9.3-18.5) versus 23.8 kg (20.2-27.4), cardiorespiratory fitness 33.4 mL/kg/min (95% CI 31.4-35.3) versus 29.1 mL/kg/min (95% CI 27.8-30.3) (adjusted for age, sex, days off activity, smoking, and alcohol). For the days off, 2 different trajectories were identified, but they differed only in terms of level and not by timing of physical activity.Conclusions: A large variation in the workday physical activity patterns was observed among aging workers. Independent of worktime activity, people who were more active in the evenings had more favorable health-related physical fitness than those who were less active throughout the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/objectives: Obesity in early childhood is associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, but studies of body composition at preschool ages are sparse. Therefore, we examined differences in body composition by sex and obesity status in Finnish preschool-aged children and within-individual changes in body composition in normal and overweight children.Subject/methods: Body composition was measured using segmental multifrequency bioimpedance analysis (BIA) in 476 children and in 781 children at age 3 and 5 years, respectively. Of those, 308 had repeated BIA measurements at both ages. BMI-SDS was used for classification of normal weight and overweight children.Results: Sex difference in the amount of lean mass (LM) was already seen at 3 years of age (boys 11.7 kg, girls 11.3 kg; p < 0.001). At 5 years of age, boys had lower fat mass (FM; 3.6 kg vs. 3.9 kg, p < 0.001), lower percent fat mass (%FM; 17.2% vs. 19.1%; p < 0.001), and higher LM (16.0 kg vs. 15.2 kg; p < 0.001) than girls. Overweight children had higher values in FM, %FM, and LM compared with normal weight peers at both ages. Among normal weight children, the increase of LM by age was associated with only minor changes in FM, whereas children who were or became overweight both LM and FM was substantially increased between 3 and 5 years of age.Conclusions: BIA-assessed body composition differs by sex and obesity status already at age of 3 years. For children who are or become overweight at very young age, the patterns for the changes in LM and FM by age are different than for normal weight children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Retirement is associated with an increase in self-reported daily sedentary time, but no longitudinal evidence exists on how objectively measured sedentary time changes during retirement transition. The aim of this study was to compare objectively measured daily and hourly sedentary time before and after retirement and examine whether these changes differ by gender and occupational status.Methods: The study population consisted of 478 participants (mean age 63.2 years, standard deviation 1.7, 85% women) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study. Sedentary time was measured using a wrist-worn triaxial ActiGraph accelerometer before and after transition to retirement with 1 year interval. Preretirement occupational status was categorized as manual and non-manual.Results: Daily sedentary time was 8 hours 10 minutes in women and 9 hours 49 minutes in men before retirement. Considering all measurement days before and after retirement, daily sedentary time increased in women by 29 minutes (95% confidence interval [CI]: 20 to 38). Especially women retiring from manual occupations showed marked increase in sedentary time (63 minutes, 95% CI: 50 to 77). When only non-working days before retirement were considered, increase in daily sedentary time among women was less marked (16 minutes, 95% CI: 7 to 25). Among men, daily sedentary time did not change in retirement transition (-7 minutes, 95% CI: -26 to 12).Conclusions: Objectively measured sedentary time increases among women and remains at high level among men during the retirement transition. Attention should be paid to reduce daily sedentary time in retiring women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate differences in abdominal fat compartments between young adult monozygotic twin pairs discordant for leisure-time physical activity.Methods: Ten young adult male monozygotic twin pairs (age range 32-36 years) discordant for leisure-time physical activity during the past 3 years were systematically selected from a population-based Finnish twin cohort. Magnetic resonance image at the level of the L2-L3 intervertebral disc was used to predict intra-abdominal and subcutaneous abdominal fat masses. Dietary intake was assessed with a 4-day food diary.Results: Inactive twins had 31% more intra-abdominal fat than their active co-twins (mean difference 0.52 kg, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.91, P = 0.016), whereas the difference in subcutaneous abdominal fat was only 13% (P = 0.21) and 3% in body mass index (P = 0.28). Intraperitoneal fat mass was 41% higher among inactive twins compared to their active co-twins (mean difference 0.41 kg, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.70, P = 0.012). Dietary intake did not differ between co-twins.Conclusions: A lower level of physical activity is related to greater accumulation of intra-abdominal fat among healthy adult males in their mid-30s. The findings highlight the importance of leisure-time physical activity independent of genes and diet in the prevention of intra-abdominal fat accumulation from early adulthood onward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physically active lifestyle is associated with low future morbidity and mortality, but the causality between physical activity and health is not always clear. As some inherited biological characteristics and childhood experiences may cause selection bias in observational studies, we sought to take them into account by identifying 16 twin pairs (7 MZ, 9 DZ, mean age 60 years) discordant for leisure time physical activity habits for thirty years. We conducted detailed health-related examinations among these twin pairs. Our main aims were to study the effects of physical activity and genes on fitness and body composition, with special reference to body fat compartments, metabolic syndrome components and related diseases and risk factor levels, status of arteries, structure and function of the heart, bone properties, and muscle and fat tissue-related mechanisms linked to physical activity and chronic disease development. Our physical activity assessments showed that inactive co-twins were on average 8.8 MET hours/day less active than their active co-twins through out their midlife (2.2+/-2.3 vs. 11.0+/-4.1 MET h/day, p< .001). Follow-up fitness tests showed that physically inactive co-twins were less fit than their active co-twins (estimated VO(2peak) 26.4+/-4.9 vs. 32.5+/-5.5 ml/kg/min, p< .001). Similar differences were found in both MZ and DZ pairs. On the basis of earlier epidemiological observations on nonrelated individuals, these physical activity and fitness differences are large enough to cause differences in many mechanisms and risk factors related to the development of chronic diseases and to permit future analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]