Association between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk in Chinese primary care patients with impaired fasting glucose

Abstract

Introduction. Both impaired fasting glucose (IFG) state and insufficient physical activities increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, the association between physical activities and the CVD risk of patients with IFG has not been evaluated. Objectives. To explore the association of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time with the estimated 10-year-CVD-risk among IFG patients. Methods. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1095 Chinese patients (574 women and 521 men) with IFG (i.e. fasting plasma glucose level between 5.6-6.9mmol/L) and without known CVD from three primary care clinics in Hong Kong. The time spent on MVPA and sedentary behaviour was collected by the self-reported short-version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The estimated 10-year-CVD-risk was calculated using gender-specific Framingham equations. Multivariable linear regression models were established to assess the association between the time spent on MVPA, sedentary behaviours and the estimated 10-year-CVD-risk after adjusting for confounders. Sensitivity analysis was further conducted to determine the impact of less than 10 minutes of MVPA per day on CVD risk. Results. Among Chinese primary care patients with IFG, each one additional hour of MVPA was associated with 0.65% (95%CI: 0.07% - 1.23%, p=0.023) reduction in the estimated 10-year-CVD-risk independent of sedentary time; the reduction reached statistical significance. Notably, compared to individuals having at least 10 minutes of MVPA per day, the mean estimated 10-year-CVD-risk of IFG patients with MVPA<10 minutes/day were 1.6% (95%CI: 0.5% to 2.7%, p=0.003) higher. No significant association was found between sedentary time and the estimated 10-year-CVD-risk in this group.