DMDs are structural and functional failures of the musculoskeletal system. As the global population ages, DMDs are becoming more prevalent. Mounting evidence supports the benefit of regular PA for improvement of cardiovascular health and reduction in risk of all- cause mortality. However, the association between PA and DMDs has not been established.
We aimed to obtain accelerometer-measured moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activities and total volume of PA, over a 7-day period in 2013-2015 without prior or concurrent DMDs in the UK Biobank cohort.
We excluded participants who had been diagnosed with DMDs from follow-up hospital records, before the end of their accelerometer wear (prevalent cases). Follow-up time was calculated as person-time in months for each participant from the final date of accelerometer wear to the first occurrence of DMDs or the end of study. The analytic sample consisted of participants who had complete data for PA, age, sex, ethnicity, age completed full time education, Townsend Deprivation Index, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
We used multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for the association between total volume, moderate-and vigorous PAs, and risk of DMDs.
We assessed the shape of the relationship between moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity, total volume of PA, and incident DMDs using a restricted cubic spline model. For this purpose, we trimmed observations less than 5% and greater than 95% of the distribution. We specified the knots at the 25th, 50th, and 75th centiles that were used for the categorisation of the variables for total volume, moderate-intensity, and vigorous-intensity of PA.
We plan to establish the association of accelerometer-measured physical activity with degenerative musculoskeletal diseases.
