Can incidental physical activity offset the deleterious associations of sedentary behaviour with major adverse cardiovascular events?

Literature to date has examined the role of total or leisure time physical activity in mitigating the health risks associated with high sedentary behaviour. However, the vast majority of adults achieve their daily physical activity incidentally through day-to-day activities. In this study of 22 368 adults from the UK Biobank accelerometry sub-study, we provide the first investigation into whether a) incidental vigorous (VPA), b) incidental moderate to vigorous (MVPA), c) vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA; bouts lasting up to 1 min), and d) moderate to vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (MV-ILPA; bouts lasting up to 3 min) completed through normal daily living can offset the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) associated with high sedentary behaviour (>11.4 h per day). We demonstrate that incidental VPA and MVPA may offset the MACE risk associated with high-sedentary behaviour even if accrued in brief bursts lasting <3 min. Completing 4.1 min/day of VPA or VILPA may offset the MACE risk associated with high sedentary behaviour.A daily duration of 31-65 min of incidental MVPA or 26-52 min of MV-ILPA per day largely attenuated the associations with MACE.