Titration of Sedentary Behavior With Varying Physical Activity Levels Reduces Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Context Both physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) exert an important impact on type 2 diabetes, but it remains unclear regarding how the maximum impact on improving mortality by an optimized proportion of the two lifestyles can be achieved. Objective To explore the impacts of PA/SB combinations on mortality in patients with diabetes. Methods Patients with type 2 diabetes samplings were collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey dataset. Their lifestyles were categorized into 8 groups based on combinations of the PA and SB levels. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results During the follow-up period, 1148 deaths (18.94%) were recorded. High SB (sedentary time >= 6 hours/day) was significantly associated with higher all-cause mortality [hazards ratio (HR) 1.65]. In participants with low SB (<6 hours/day), low PA was associated with lower all-cause mortality (HR 0.43), while a further increase of PA level did not show further reductions in either all-cause or cardiovascular mortality. In contrast, in participants with high SB, all levels of PA were associated with lower all-cause mortality (P < .05), but only moderate PA was associated with lower cardiovascular mortality (HR 0.30). Conclusion In patients with type 2 diabetes, different combinations of various levels of PA and SB are associated with different degrees of risk for all-cause or cardiovascular mortality.