THURSDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with known risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus, sedentary time is detrimentally linked to cardiometabolic health markers, and may be a more important indicator than moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, according to research published online Feb. 27 in Diabetologia.

Joseph Henson, from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues looked at data from two ongoing diabetes prevention programs to examine the correlation between objectively measured sedentary time, breaks in sedentary time, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and total physical activity with cardiovascular health. Participants included 878 adults with known risk factors recruited from primary care practices within the East Midlands in the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2011.

The researchers found that after adjustment for confounding variables, including MVPA and body mass index (BMI), sedentary time had a detrimental linear association with two-hour plasma glucose, triacylglycerol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. After adjustment for sedentary time and BMI there was a significant inverse correlation for breaks in sedentary time, MVPA, and total physical activity with measures of adiposity, but not with cardiometabolic variables.

"In adults at high risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, time spent sedentary is strongly and adversely associated with cardiometabolic health and may be a more important indicator of poor health than MVPA," the authors write.

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