Low leisure-based sitting time and being physically active were associated with reduced odds of death and diabetes in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cohort study.

Questions: In people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are activity phenotypes (based on physical activity and recreational screen time) associated with mortality and cardiometabolic risk factors?

Design: Cohort study. Participants: People with COPD aged≥40years and who were current or ex-smokers were identified from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey. Outcome measures: Data were collected regarding demographics, anthropometric measurements, medical history, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, health outcomes, and mortality. Analysis: Participants were categorised into one of the following activity phenotypes: 'couch potatoes' were those who were insufficiently active with high leisure-based sitting time and/or no domestic physical activity; 'light movers' were insufficiently active with some domestic physical activity; 'sedentary exercisers' were sufficiently active with high leisure-based sitting time; and 'busy bees' were sufficiently active with low leisure-based sitting time. 'Sufficiently active' was defined as adhering to physical activity (PA) recommendations of≥7.5 metabolic equivalent (MET) hours/week. 'Low leisure-based sitting time' was defined as≤200minutes of recreational screen time/day.

Results: The 584 participants had a mean age of 64 years (SD 12) and 52% were male. Over 5.5 years (SD 1.3) of follow-up, there were 81 all-cause deaths from 433 COPD participants with available data. Compared to the 'couch potatoes', there was a reduced risk of all-cause mortality in the 'busy bees' (Hazard Ratio 0.26, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.65) with a trend towards a reduction in mortality risk in the other phenotypes. The odds of diabetes were lower in the 'busy bees' compared to the 'couch potatoes' (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.67).

Conclusions: Adhering to physical activity guidelines and keeping leisure-based sitting time low had a mortality benefit and lowered the odds of diabetes in people with COPD. [McKeough Z, Cheng SWM, Alison J, Jenkins C, Hamer M, Stamatakis E (2018) Low leisure-based sitting time and being physically active were associated with reduced odds of death and diabetes in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cohort study. Journal of Physiotherapy 64: 114-120].