Association of accelerometer-measured physical activity patterns with cardiovascular diseases and mortality in people with osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVE: To explore the associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity patterns and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), CVD-cause mortality and all-cause mortality in people with osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: OA participants from the UK biobank with ≥36 h of accelerometer data, collected over one-week, were analysed. Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) patterns were classified as: 'weekend warriors' (≥150 min/week, >50% on 1-2 days), active regular (>150 min/week) or inactive (<150 min/week). Mean min per week of light physical activity (LPA) were categorized into quartiles based on the distribution in the analytical sample. RESULTS: Among 10 210 study participants (mean age 58.1 ± 7.1 years; 64.5% female) followed for a median of 6.9 years, there were 1538 incident cases of CVD, and 358 deaths, including 90 from CVD. Compared with inactive MVPA, both weekend warrior [adjusted hazard ratio, aHR (95% CIs); 0.73 (0.64-0.82)] and active regular MVPA [0.75 (0.65-0.87)] significantly lowered the risks of incident CVD. Notably, only the weekend warrior group showed significant reductions in CVD-cause mortality (0.55, 0.33-0.92), and all-cause mortality [0.75 (0.59-0.96)]. Higher levels of LPA may link to lower CVD, CVD-cause mortality and all-cause mortality risks in a dose-response manner. Subgroup analysis indicated that more prominent associations were found in individuals with a body mass index >30 or those aged over 60. CONCLUSION: Engaging in a weekend warrior pattern may confer unique survival benefits for OA patients, especially among older adults and those with obesity. LPA may have dose-dependent protective effects for CVD and mortality risk in OA patients.