Cross-sectional associations between the diversity of sport activities and the type of low back pain in adulthood

Leisure-time physical activity has a complex relationship with low back pain (LBP). Thus, we aimed to investigate whether the diversity of sport activities is associated with the type of LBP. In the FinnTwin16 study, 4246 (55% females) Finnish twins at mean age 34.1 years replied to a health behaviour survey in 2010-2012. Based on the participation in different sport activities, we created two measures of diversity: quantity (i.e. the number of sport activities: 1, 2, 3, 4 and >= 5) and quality (i.e. the type of sport activity: endurance, strength, body care, etc.). Based on the frequency, duration and type of LBP, we created three groups: no history of LBP lasting more than one day, radiating LBP and non-radiating LBP. The associations between the quantity and quality of sport activities and the type of LBP were investigated with logistic regression analyses. Participation in >= 5 sport activities associated with less radiating and non-radiating LBP in analyses pooled across sex (odds ratio 0.46, 95% CI 0.30-0.69 and 0.66, 0.44-0.99, respectively). However, the associations attenuated after adjusting for several confounders. Participation in endurance sports was associated with less radiating (0.58, 0.43-0.76) and non-radiating (0.60, 0.44-0.81) LBP, whereas strength sports and body care only with less radiating LBP (0.76, 0.58-1.00 and 0.26, 0.09-0.74, respectively) adjusted for all sport types. On a sport-specific level, running and cycling were associated with less radiating and non-radiating LBP. In adulthood, the diversity of sport activities, particularly participation in endurance sports, may be associated with less radiating and non-radiating LBP.Peer reviewe

Sport disciplines, types of sports, and waist circumference in young adulthood - a population-based twin study

Purpose: The benefits of physical activity (PA) in preventing abdominal obesity are well recognized, but the role of different sport disciplines remains open. We aimed, therefore, to investigate how participation in different sport disciplines, and the number and types of sports engaged in are associated with waist circumference (WC) in young adulthood. Methods: This population-based cohort study comprised 4027 Finnish twin individuals (1874 men), with a mean age of 34 y (32-37), who answered a survey, including self-measured WC. We extracted the number and identified the types (aerobic, power, and mixed) of the different sport disciplines respondents reported participating in. Results: The number of sport disciplines participated in was inversely associated with WC, the linear decrease averaging 1.38cm (95% CI 1.10-1.65) per each additional sport discipline. The result persisted after adjustment for the main covariates, such as volume of PA and diet quality. Among dizygotic twin pairs discordant for sports participation (0-2 vs. 5 or more disciplines), the mean within-pair difference in WC was 4.8cm (95% CI 0.4-9.1) for men and 11.2cm (95% CI 4.4-18.0) for women; among discordant monozygotic pairs, no differences were observed. In men, all three types of sports were individually associated with smaller WC, while in women, only mixed and power sports showed this association. Conclusions: Participation in several sport disciplines and sport types was associated with smaller WC among young adults in their mid-30s. Shared genetic background may explain some of the associations.Peer reviewe

Physical activity and health : Findings from Finnish monozygotic twin pairs discordant for physical activity

Genetic and early environmental differences including early health habits associate with future health. To provide insight on the causal nature of these associations, monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for health habits provide an interesting natural experiment. Twin pairs discordant for leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in early adult life is thus a powerful study design to investigate the associations between long-term LTPA and indicators of health and wellbeing. We have identified 17 LTPA discordant twin pairs from two Finnish twin cohorts and summarize key findings of these studies in this paper. The carefully characterized rare long-term LTPA discordant MZ twin pairs have participated in multi-dimensional clinical examinations. Key findings highlight that compared with less active twins in such MZ twin pairs, the twins with higher long-term LTPA have higher physical fitness, reduced body fat, reduced visceral fat, reduced liver fat, increased lumen diameters of conduit arteries to the lower limbs, increased bone mineral density in loaded bone areas, and an increased number of large high-density lipoprotein particles. The findings increase our understanding on the possible site-specific and system-level effects of long-term LTPA.Peer reviewe

Long-term physical activity modulates brain processing of somatosensory stimuli : Evidence from young male twins

Leisure-time physical activity is a key contributor to physical and mental health. Yet the role of physical activity in modulating cortical function is poorly known. We investigated whether precognitive sensory brain functions are associated with the level of physical activity. Physical activity history (3-yr-LTMET), physiological measures and somatosensory mismatch response (sMMR) in EEG were recorded in 32 young healthy twins. In all participants, 3-yr-LTMET correlated negatively with body fat%, r=0.77 and positively with VO2max, r=0.82. The fat% and VO2max differed between 15 physically active and 17 inactive participants. Trend toward larger sMMR was seen in inactive compared to active participants. This finding was significant in a pairwise comparison of 9 monozygotic twin pairs discordant for physical activity. Larger sMMR reflecting stronger synchronous neural activity may reveal diminished gating of precognitive somatosensory information in physically inactive healthy young men compared to the active ones possibly rendering them more vulnerable to somatosensory distractions from their surroundings. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Estimation Based on Heart Rate and Body Acceleration in Adults With Cardiovascular Risk Factors : Validation Study

Publisher Copyright: © Antti-Pekka E Rissanen, Mirva Rottensteiner, Urho M Kujala, Jari L O Kurkela, Jan Wikgren, Jari A Laukkanen. Originally published in JMIR Cardio (https://cardio.jmir.org), 25.10.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Cardio, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://cardio.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Adding CRF to conventional risk factors (eg, smoking, hypertension, impaired glucose metabolism, and dyslipidemia) improves the prediction of an individual's risk for adverse health outcomes such as those related to cardiovascular disease. Consequently, it is recommended to determine CRF as part of individualized risk prediction. However, CRF is not determined routinely in everyday clinical practice. Wearable technologies provide a potential strategy to estimate CRF on a daily basis, and such technologies, which provide CRF estimates based on heart rate and body acceleration, have been developed. However, the validity of such technologies in estimating individual CRF in clinically relevant populations is poorly known. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the validity of a wearable technology, which provides estimated CRF based on heart rate and body acceleration, in working-aged adults with cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: In total, 74 adults (age range 35-64 years; n=56, 76% were women; mean BMI 28.7, SD 4.6 kg/m2) with frequent cardiovascular risk factors (eg, n=64, 86% hypertension; n=18, 24% prediabetes; n=14, 19% type 2 diabetes; and n=51, 69% metabolic syndrome) performed a 30-minute self-paced walk on an indoor track and a cardiopulmonary exercise test on a treadmill. CRF, quantified as peak O2 uptake, was both estimated (self-paced walk: a wearable single-lead electrocardiogram device worn to record continuous beat-to-beat R-R intervals and triaxial body acceleration) and measured (cardiopulmonary exercise test: ventilatory gas analysis). The accuracy of the estimated CRF was evaluated against that of the measured CRF. Results: Measured CRF averaged 30.6 (SD 6.3; range 20.1-49.6) mL/kg/min. In all participants (74/74, 100%), mean difference between estimated and measured CRF was −0.1 mL/kg/min (P = .90), mean absolute error was 3.1 mL/kg/min (95% CI 2.6-3.7), mean absolute percentage error was 10.4% (95% CI 8.5-12.5), and intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.88 (95% CI 0.80-0.92). Similar accuracy was observed in various subgroups (sexes, age, BMI categories, hypertension, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrome). However, mean absolute error was 4.2 mL/kg/min (95% CI 2.6-6.1) and mean absolute percentage error was 16.5% (95% CI 8.6-24.4) in the subgroup of patients with type 2 diabetes (14/74, 19%). Conclusions: The error of the CRF estimate, provided by the wearable technology, was likely below or at least very close to the clinically significant level of 3.5 mL/kg/min in working-aged adults with cardiovascular risk factors, but not in the relatively small subgroup of patients with type 2 diabetes. From a large-scale clinical perspective, the findings suggest that wearable technologies have the potential to estimate individual CRF with acceptable accuracy in clinically relevant populations.Peer reviewe

Associations of physical activity, fitness, and body composition with heart rate variability-based indicators of stress and recovery on workdays : a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate how physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and body composition are associated with heart rate variability (HRV)-based indicators of stress and recovery on workdays. Additionally, we evaluated the association of objectively measured stress with self-reported burnout symptoms. METHODS: Participants of this cross-sectional study were 81 healthy males (age range 26-40 y). Stress and recovery on workdays were measured objectively based on HRV recordings. CRF and anthropometry were assessed in laboratory conditions. The level of PA was based on a detailed PA interview (MET index [MET-h/d]) and self-reported activity class. RESULTS: PA, CRF, and body composition were significantly associated with levels of stress and recovery on workdays. MET index (P < 0.001), activity class (P = 0.001), and CRF (P = 0.019) were negatively associated with stress during working hours whereas body fat percentage (P = 0.005) was positively associated. Overall, 27.5% of the variance of total stress on workdays (P = 0.001) was accounted for by PA, CRF, and body composition. Body fat percentage and body mass index were negatively associated with night-time recovery whereas CRF was positively associated. Objective work stress was associated (P = 0.003) with subjective burnout symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: PA, CRF, and body composition are associated with HRV-based stress and recovery levels, which needs to be taken into account in the measurement, prevention, and treatment of work-related stress. The HRV-based method used to determine work-related stress and recovery was associated with self-reported burnout symptoms, but more research on the clinical importance of the methodology is needed.Peer reviewe

Development of a Food-Based Diet Quality Score from a Short FFQ and Associations with Obesity Measures, Eating Styles and Nutrient Intakes in Finnish Twins

We constructed a food-based diet quality score (DQS) and examined its association with obesity measures, eating styles and nutrient intakes. Participants were 3592 individuals (764 dizygotic [DZ] and 430 monozygotic [MZ] twin pairs) from the FinnTwin16 study. The DQS (0–12 points) was constructed from a short 14 item food frequency questionnaire. Anthropometric measures and eating styles were self-reported. Nutrient intakes were calculated from food diaries completed in a subsample of 249 individuals (45 same-sex DZ and 60 MZ twin pairs). Twins were analyzed both as individuals and as twin pairs. The DQS was inversely associated with body mass index (β = −0.12, per one-unit increase in DQS, p < 0.001), waist circumference (β = −0.34, p < 0.001), obesity (odds ratio [OR]: 0.95, p = 0.004) and abdominal obesity (OR: 0.88, p < 0.001), independent of sex, age, physical activity and education. A higher DQS was associated with health-conscious eating, having breakfast, less snacking, fewer evening meals, and a higher frequency and regularity of eating. The DQS was positively correlated with the intakes of protein, fiber and magnesium and negatively correlated with the intakes of total fat, saturated fat and sucrose. Within twin pairs, most of the associations between the DQS with eating styles and some nutrients remained, but the DQS was not associated with obesity measures within twin pairs. The DQS is an easy-to-use tool for ranking adults according to diet quality and shows an association with obesity measures, eating styles and key nutrients in the expected direction

Development of a Food-Based Diet Quality Score from a Short FFQ and Associations with Obesity Measures, Eating Styles and Nutrient Intakes in Finnish Twins

We constructed a food-based diet quality score (DQS) and examined its association with obesity measures, eating styles and nutrient intakes. Participants were 3592 individuals (764 dizygotic [DZ] and 430 monozygotic [MZ] twin pairs) from the FinnTwin16 study. The DQS (0–12 points) was constructed from a short 14 item food frequency questionnaire. Anthropometric measures and eating styles were self-reported. Nutrient intakes were calculated from food diaries completed in a subsample of 249 individuals (45 same-sex DZ and 60 MZ twin pairs). Twins were analyzed both as individuals and as twin pairs. The DQS was inversely associated with body mass index (β = −0.12, per one-unit increase in DQS, p < 0.001), waist circumference (β = −0.34, p < 0.001), obesity (odds ratio [OR]: 0.95, p = 0.004) and abdominal obesity (OR: 0.88, p < 0.001), independent of sex, age, physical activity and education. A higher DQS was associated with health-conscious eating, having breakfast, less snacking, fewer evening meals, and a higher frequency and regularity of eating. The DQS was positively correlated with the intakes of protein, fiber and magnesium and negatively correlated with the intakes of total fat, saturated fat and sucrose. Within twin pairs, most of the associations between the DQS with eating styles and some nutrients remained, but the DQS was not associated with obesity measures within twin pairs. The DQS is an easy-to-use tool for ranking adults according to diet quality and shows an association with obesity measures, eating styles and key nutrients in the expected direction

Physical activity and health: Findings from Finnish monozygotic twin pairs discordant for physical activity

Genetic and early environmental differences including early health habits associate with future health. To provide insight on the causal nature of these associations, monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for health habits provide an interesting natural experiment. Twin pairs discordant for leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in early adult life is thus a powerful study design to investigate the associations between long-term LTPA and indicators of health and wellbeing. We have identified 17 LTPA discordant twin pairs from two Finnish twin cohorts and summarize key findings of these studies in this paper. The carefully characterized rare long-term LTPA discordant MZ twin pairs have participated in multi-dimensional clinical examinations. Key findings highlight that compared with less active twins in such MZ twin pairs, the twins with higher long-term LTPA have higher physical fitness, reduced body fat, reduced visceral fat, reduced liver fat, increased lumen diameters of conduit arteries to the lower limbs, increased bone mineral density in loaded bone areas, and an increased number of large high-density lipoprotein particles. The findings increase our understanding on the possible site-specific and system-level effects of long-term LTPA

Measuring psychosocial stress with heart rate variability-based methods in different health and age groups

Objective. Autonomic nervous system function and thereby bodily stress and recovery reactions may be assessed by wearable devices measuring heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV). So far, the validity of HRV-based stress assessments has been mainly studied in healthy populations. In this study, we determined how psychosocial stress affects physiological and psychological stress responses in both young (18-30 years) and middle-aged (45-64 years) healthy individuals as well as in patients with arterial hypertension and/or either prior evidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. We also studied how an HRV-based stress index (Relax-Stress Intensity, RSI) relates to perceived stress (PS) and cortisol (CRT) responses during psychosocial stress. Approach. A total of 197 participants were divided into three groups: (1) healthy young (HY, N = 63), (2) healthy middle-aged (HM, N = 61) and (3) patients with cardiometabolic risk factors (Pts, N = 73, 32-65 years). The participants underwent a group version of Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-G). HR, HRV (quantified as root mean square of successive differences of R-R intervals, RMSSD), RSI, PS, and salivary CRT were measured regularly during TSST-G and a subsequent recovery period. Main results. All groups showed significant stress reactions during TSST-G as indicated by significant responses of HR, RMSSD, RSI, PS, and salivary CRT. Between-group differences were also observed in all measures. Correlation and regression analyses implied RSI being the strongest predictor of CRT response, while HR was more closely associated with PS. Significance. The HRV-based stress index mirrors responses of CRT, which is an independent marker for physiological stress, around TSST-G. Thus, the HRV-based stress index may be used to quantify physiological responses to psychosocial stress across various health and age groups.Peer reviewe