Dual Cohort Insights Into Accelerometer-Derived Weekend Warrior Physical Activity and Its Impact on Mortality

Area of Science:

• Exercise physiology
• Public health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Current physical activity guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) weekly.
• The health implications of concentrated vs. evenly distributed MVPA are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between accelerometer-measured weekend warrior and evenly spread MVPA patterns and mortality risks.
• To compare the mortality benefits of different physical activity distribution patterns.

Main Methods:

• Utilized accelerometer data from UK Biobank (n=89,488) and US NHANES (n=6,198).
• Categorized MVPA into inactive, weekend warrior, and regularly active patterns.
• Assessed all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality over median follow-up periods of 6.9 and 6.0 years.

Main Results:

• Both weekend warrior and regularly active patterns (≥150 min MVPA/week) were associated with significantly lower risks of all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality compared to inactivity.
• These benefits were observed across different MVPA thresholds and consistently at the 25th percentile and higher.
• The mortality risk reductions were comparable between concentrated and evenly spread activity patterns.

Conclusions:

• Concentrating physical activity into 1-2 days per week is associated with substantial reductions in mortality risks.
• The health benefits of the weekend warrior activity pattern are comparable to those of regularly distributed physical activity.
• This suggests flexibility in achieving health benefits through different physical activity timing strategies.