Week and Weekend Day Cadence Patterns Long-Term Post-Bariatric Surgery

Obesity can negatively influence walking cadence, reducing the overall intensity of daily activities and increasing the risk of weight gain.

Objectively describe the walking cadence of individuals' long-term post-bariatric surgery.

Fifty-eight participants, 51.2 ± 8.9 years old, with a BMI of 34.6 ± 10.1 kg/m², 10.0 ± 3.1 years post-surgery wore an activPAL accelerometer for 7 consecutive days. Data was analyzed using participants' current BMI, dichotomized by obesity status, < or ≥ 30 kg/m².

On average, participants walked 5124 ± 2549 steps/day on weekdays and 6097 ± 2786 steps/day on weekend days (p = .003). Participants spent the majority (75%) of their daily steps at a slow-walking average cadence (non-obese: week = 65.3 ± 5.0 steps/min and weekend = 63.8 ± 6.7 steps/min; obese: week = 67.8 ± 8.2 steps/min and weekend = 63.3 ± 6.9 steps/min), with no difference between groups for week or weekend days (p = .153 and .774). The cadence of participants with obesity was significantly lower on weekends compared to weekdays for walking events > 30 s (p = .002) and > 60 s (p = .008) in duration. Weekday cadence of participants without obesity was similar to weekend day cadence across all walking event durations. The majority of walking events occurred below 30 s in duration for all participants.

Long-term post-bariatric surgery, movement occurs in short duration bouts at a slow-walking cadence for the majority of movement. Individuals without obesity had similar movement patterns from week to weekend days while participants with obesity significantly lowered their cadence on weekend days.