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How does light-intensity physical activity associate with adult cardiometabolic health and mortality? Systematic review with meta-analysis of experimental and observational studies
Open accessAbstract
AIM: To assess the relationship between time spent in light physical activity and cardiometabolic health and mortality in adults. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: Searches in Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL and three rounds of hand searches. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Experimental (including acute mechanistic studies and physical activity intervention programme) and observational studies (excluding case and case-control studies) conducted in adults (aged ≥18 years) published in English before February 2018 and reporting on the relationship between light physical activity (<3 metabolic equivalents) and cardiometabolic health outcomes or all-cause mortality. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS: Study quality appraisal with QUALSYST tool and random effects inverse variance meta-analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-two studies were eligible including 27 experimental studies (and 45 observational studies). Mechanistic experimental studies showed that short but frequent bouts of light-intensity activity throughout the day reduced postprandial glucose (-17.5%; 95% CI -26.2 to -8.7) and insulin (-25.1%; 95% CI -31.8 to -18.3) levels compared with continuous sitting, but there was very limited evidence for it affecting other cardiometabolic markers. Three light physical activity programme intervention studies (n ranging from 12 to 58) reduced adiposity, improved blood pressure and lipidaemia; the programmes consisted of activity of >150 min/week for at least 12 weeks. Six out of eight prospective observational studies that were entered in the meta-analysis reported that more time spent in daily light activity reduced risk of all-cause mortality (pooled HR 0.71; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.83). CONCLUSIONS: Light-intensity physical activity could play a role in improving adult cardiometabolic health and reducing mortality risk. Frequent short bouts of light activity improve glycaemic control. Nevertheless, the modest volume of the prospective epidemiological evidence base and the moderate consistency between observational and laboratory evidence inhibits definitive conclusions.
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“Instead, undertaking accelerometer-measured light-intensity PA (LPA) at intensity levels lower than 3.0 metabolite equivalents (METs) could be an easier choice than MVPA for enhancing health.10, 11, 12”
From Accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, and incidence of macrovascular and microvascular events in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus and prediabetes (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chastin, S. F. M., De Craemer, M., De Cocker, K., Powell, L., Van Cauwenberg, J., Dall, P., Hamer, M., & Stamatakis, E.
- Affiliations
- Glasgow Caledonian University (GB)
- Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Research Foundation Flanders, Brussels, Belgium
- Loughborough University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Chastin, Sebastien F M
- Venue
- British Journal of Sports Medicine
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2018-04-25
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 370-376
- ISSN
- 0306-3674 (ISSN-L)
- 1473-0480
- PMC
- PMC6579499
- OpenAlex
- W2798148638
- Cited by
- 465
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 89 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 79 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 12
- FWCI
- 5.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- British Journal of Sports Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ResearchOnline (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- ResearchOnline (Glasgow Caledonian University) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- UniSA Research Outputs Repository (University of South Australia) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Loughborough University Institutional Repository (Loughborough University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Loughborough University Research Repository (Loughborough University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- University of Leicester
- Loughborough University
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (12I1117N, FWO11/PDO/097, FWO11, FWO 12I1117N)
- Vlaamse regering
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Keywords
- light physical activity, cardiometabolic health, all-cause mortality, postprandial blood glucose, insulin, sedentary behavior, physical activity interventions, adiposity, blood pressure, glycemic control
- MeSH terms
- Blood Glucose, Cardiovascular Diseases, Humans, Mortality, Exercise, Adiposity, Observational Studies as Topic
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