Abstract

Objective: We examined the associations of objectively-measured sedentary time and physical activity with continuous indices of metabolic risk in Australian adults without known diabetes.

Research Design and Methods: An accelerometer was used to derive percentage of monitoring time spent in sedentary, light-intensity, and in moderate-to-vigorous activity, as well as mean-activity intensity, in 169 AusDiab study participants (mean age=53.4y). Associations with waist circumference, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, resting blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and a clustered metabolic risk score were examined.

Results: Independent of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity, there were significant associations of sedentary time, light-intensity time, and mean-activity intensity with waist circumference and clustered metabolic risk. Independent of waist circumference, moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity time was significantly beneficially associated with triglycerides.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance for metabolic health of decreasing sedentary time, as well as increasing time spent in physical activity.