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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

WR2_1: Abstract presentations: Implementing Physical Activity for Health: From Policy to Practice
Location: White room 2
Session Chair: Mark Stoutenberg

Presentation 6

12:20pm - 12:30pm

Impact of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Associations Between Peak Activity Intensities and Waist Circumference

Henri Vähä-Ypyä¹, Pauliina Husu¹, Heinonen Ilkka^1,2, Tokola Kari¹, Nuuttila Olli-Pekkka¹, Vasankari Tommi^1,3

1: UKK institute, Finland; 2: University of Turku, Finland; 3: University of Tampere, Finland

Purpose

Waist circumference (WC), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and physical activity (PA) are interrelated determinants of cardiometabolic health. Because WC, CRF, and PA may influence one another bidirectionally, each can act both as a confounder and a mediator. It remains unclear whether peak PA intensities accumulated over different time durations show distinct associations with WC when accounting for CRF.

Methods
A total of 3475 adults (mean age 51±13 years; 60% women) participated in the cross-sectional population-based FINFIT17- and FINFIT21-studies and wore hip‑mounted accelerometers for one week. CRF was estimated with a 6‑minute walk test, and WC was measured with standardized procedures. Accelerometer data were processed using MAD-metrics and mean daily peak intensities were derived for 1‑, 3‑, 6‑, 10‑, 30‑, and 120‑minute durations. Age‑ and sex‑adjusted and age‑, sex‑, and CRF‑adjusted partial correlations were calculated between WC and each intensity measure.

Results
All age‑ and sex‑adjusted partial correlations showed statistically significant inverse associations with WC (p<0.001), the strongest one for the 3‑minute duration (r=−0.305). After adjusting for CRF, associations were markedly attenuated. The strongest remaining inverse correlation was observed for the 30‑minute duration (r =−0.062; p<0.001), with significant associations (p<0.05) persisting for the all over 3‑minute durations.

Conclusions

Peak daily activity intensities across both short and long durations were inversely associated with WC across the study group. Adjustment for CRF substantially attenuated the associations, shifting the strongest association towards longer durations. These findings suggest that longer activity bouts may provide additional benefits for central adiposity in some contexts.