Youth Participation in Competitive Sports Associates with Midlife Lean Body Mass and Physical Activity

Abstract

Benefits of life-long physical activity (PA) are widely recognized. Fewer studies have investigated how being young competing athlete reflects to later life body composition and PA. PURPOSE: To investigate the impact of participation in competitive sports in youth on the body composition and subjectively and objectively measured PA at middle- age. METHODS: The study participants are 47-to-55-year old Finnish women (n=985) attending to the Estrogenic Regulation of Muscle Apoptosis study (ERMA). Their participation in competitive sports at the age of 13-to-16 was assessed with retrospective self-report. Midlife lean body mass (LBM), skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and fat mass (FM) were measured with bioimpedance (Inbody 720) after overnight fast (n=866). Midlife PA included 7-scaled self-estimate that was reclassified to form sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous PA categories (n=985), a detailed assessment of leisure-time PA volume, duration and intensity (a modified Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study Questionnaire, n=982) enabling calculation of mean daily metabolic equivalent (MET-h/day) index as a proxy of the previous 12 months PA and objectively measured total PA over seven-days by hip-worn accelerometer (Actigraph GT3X+ or wGT3X+, n=734). Statistical differences were tested using chi-squared test, independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Participants were assigned into youth athlete (n=136) or non-athlete (n=849) groups based on their participation in competitive sports at the age of 13-to-16. Youth athlete group had 1.5 kg higher LBM (p=0.002) and 1.0 kg higher SMM (p=0.001) at middle-age, but no statistically significant difference in FM. Youth athletes reported more vigorous PA (32.4% vs. 20.3%, p=0.007) and higher leisure-time MET index (4.3 vs. 3.4 h/day, p<0.001) than non-athletes. No difference was observed in accelerometer-measured sedentary time, light PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA or total PA (counts) between groups. CONCLUSION: Participation in sport competitions as a teenager has long lasting health benefits that associates with healthier body composition and higher leisure-time PA later in life. However, the discrepancy between self-reports and objective measures needs further studies to delineate the benefits of different components of PA.