Amount and intensity of daily total physical activity, step count and risk of incident cancer in the UK Biobank

2025/03/26 by Alaina H Shreves, Scott R Small, Rosemary Walmsley +8 · 1 citation

paper · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2024-109360

Abstract

Objectives To investigate associations between daily physical activity, activity intensity and step counts with incident cancer risk. Methods Prospective analysis of UK Biobank participants who wore wrist-based accelerometers for 7 days, followed for cancer incidence (mean follow-up 5.8 years, SD 1.3). Time-series machine-learning models derived total physical activity, sedentary behaviour (SB), light-intensity physical activity (LIPA), moderate-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and step counts. The outcome was a composite of 13 cancers previously associated with low physical activity in questionnaire-based studies. Cox proportional hazard models estimated HRs and 95% CIs, adjusted for demographic, health and lifestyle factors. We also explored associations of LIPA, MVPA and SB with cancer risk. Results Among 85 394 participants (median age 63 (IQR 56–68)), 2633 were diagnosed with cancer during follow-up. Compared with individuals in the lowest quintile of total physical activity ( Conclusion Total physical activity, LIPA, MVPA and step counts were inversely associated with incident cancer.

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• ActiNet: An Open-Source Tool for Activity Intensity Classification of Wrist-Worn Accelerometry Using Self-Supervised Deep Learning

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