Temporal physical activity patterns are associated with obesity in U.S. adults

Few attempts have been made to incorporate multiple aspects of physical activity (PA) to classify patterns linked with health. Temporal PA patterns integrating time and activity counts were created to determine their association with health status. Accelerometry data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006 was used to pattern PA counts and time of activity from 1999 adults with one weekday of activity. Dynamic time warping and kernel k-means clustering partitioned 4 participant clusters representing temporal PA patterns. Multivariate regression models determined associations between clusters and health status indicators and obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Cluster 1 with a temporal PA pattern of the lowest activity counts reaching 4.8e⁴ cph from 6:00-23:00 was associated with higher body mass index (BMI) (β = 2.5 ± 0.6 kg/m², 95% CI: 1.0, 4.1), higher waist circumference (WC) (β = 6.4 ± 1.3 cm, 95% CI: 2.8, 10.0), and higher odds of obesity (OR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.3, 4.4) compared with Cluster 3 with activity counts reaching 9.6e⁴-1.2e⁵ cph between 16:00-21:00. Cluster 1 was also associated with higher BMI (β = 1.5 ± 0.5 kg/m², 95% CI: 0.1, 2.8) and WC (β = 3.6 ± 1.3 cm, 95% CI: 0.1, 7.0) compared to Cluster 4 with activity counts reaching 9.6e⁴ cph between 8:00-11:00. A Temporal PA pattern with the lowest PA counts had significantly higher mean BMI and WC compared to temporal PA patterns of higher activity counts performed early (8:00-11:00) or late (16:00-21:00) throughout the day. Temporal PA patterns appear to meaningfully link to health status.