Article Impact Level: HIGH Data Quality: STRONG Summary of Journal of the American Heart Association, e039225. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.124.039225 Dr. Dan‐Qing Liao et al.
Points
- This study compared the effects of concentrated “weekend warrior” physical activity and evenly distributed physical activity on mortality risk using data from the UK Biobank collected between 2013 and 2015.
- The study identified three patterns of physical activity: inactive, active weekend warrior, and active regular, and used Cox proportional hazards models to investigate their relationship with all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer-related mortality.
- Over an 8.1-year follow-up, the active weekend warrior group showed significant reductions in all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality compared to the inactive group, with similar results for the active regular group.
- No significant difference in mortality risk was found between the active weekend warrior and active regular groups, suggesting that both types of physical activity provide similar benefits for reducing mortality risk.
- The study concludes that concentrated and evenly distributed physical activity patterns lead to similar reductions in mortality risk, providing a practical solution for individuals struggling to maintain regular physical activity.
Summary
This study aimed to compare the effects of concentrated physical activity, also known as the “weekend warrior” pattern, with evenly distributed physical activity (PA) on mortality risk. Data from the UK Biobank, which included device-measured PA from 2013 to 2015, were analyzed. Three patterns of physical activity were identified: inactive, active weekend warrior (where most MVPA is completed on one or two days), and active regular (where MVPA is evenly spread across the week). The study used Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the relationship between these PA patterns and mortality risk, focusing on all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer-related deaths.
During the 8.1-year median follow-up period, 3965 deaths occurred, including 667 from cardiovascular disease and 1780 from cancer. The active weekend warrior group showed a significant reduction in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.68, 95% CI 0.64–0.74), CVD mortality (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.58–0.83), and cancer mortality (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.71–0.89) compared to the inactive group. Similarly, the active regular group also showed lower mortality risk for all-cause (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.68–0.81), CVD (HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.61–0.94), and cancer (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.76–0.99) deaths compared to the inactive group. Importantly, no significant difference in mortality risk was found between the active weekend warrior and regular groups.
The study concludes that concentrated and evenly distributed physical activity patterns lead to similar reductions in mortality risk, offering a practical solution for individuals who struggle to maintain regular physical activity due to time constraints. These findings support that engaging in the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, even if concentrated in a couple of days, can effectively reduce mortality risk.
Link to the article: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.039225
References Liao, D., Li, H., Chen, H., Lai, S., Tang, X., Qiu, C., Du, L., Huang, H., Xiong, Z., Kuang, L., Zhang, B., Zhang, P., Gao, J., Zhong, W., Chen, P., Liu, D., Yang, J., Huang, Q., Mao, C., & Li, Z. (2025). Association of accelerometer‐derived physical activity pattern with the risks of all‐cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer death. Journal of the American Heart Association, e039225. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.124.039225
