Daily Life Activity and Risk of Developing Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Abstract

Because of the epidemic of sedentary lifestyle worldwide, there has been a secular decline in the amount of daily life energy expenditure (1). Daily life activities represent the accumulation of complex behaviors in daily life, and few middle-aged individuals engage in physical training or physical activity at their jobs or during leisure time. Thus, it is important to examine whether overall physical activity in daily life contributes to a reduction of the risk of cardiovascular risk factors (2,3). Because BMI has been previously identified as an effect modifier of physical fitness on the risk of cardiovascular risk factors (4), we prospectively examined the relationship between daily life activities (expressed in terms of energy expenditure) and the development of cardiovascular risk factors (i.e., hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and the metabolic syndrome) according to BMI. A survey of the incidence of cardiovascular risk factors was done between 1994 and 2001 at one of the biggest building contractors in Japan. All Japanese male office workers aged 35–59 years in May 1994 were invited to participate in annual health examinations ( n = 3,694). Subjects for this study were 3,607 men who did not have a history of cardiovascular disease and who completed the activity record. Details …