Associations between device-measured 24-hour movement behaviors and cardiac conduction disease: results from the UK biobank prospective cohort

Abstract Background The impact of 24-hour movement behaviors on cardiac conduction disease remains poorly understood. Purpose We aimed to investigate whether device-measured 24-hour movement behaviors were associated with the risk of cardiac conduction disease. Methods We included 92,436 participants from the UK Biobank who wore wrist accelerometers for 7 days. The participants were followed up for a median of 6.1 years. We used compositional data analysis to study the associations between 24-hour movement behaviors (sleep, sedentary behavior, light-intensity physical activity [LIPA], and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity [MVPA]) and incident cardiac conduction disease, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, anthropometric, lifestyle, and clinical factors. Results During the follow-up, 1,442 cases of cardiac conduction disease occurred (incidence rate: 2.58 per 1,000 person-years). Higher proportions of sedentary behavior or sleep were associated with an increased risk of cardiac conduction disease, while higher MVPA was associated with a lower risk. Reallocating 30 min/day to MVPA from other behaviors was associated with a 7% lower risk of cardiac conduction disease (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.90–0.96). Conversely, reallocating 30 minutes per day to sedentary behavior or sleep from other behaviors was associated with a 5% (HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.03–1.07) and 3% (HR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.06) higher risk, respectively. These associations remained consistent across cardiac conduction disease subtypes and in various sensitivity analyses. Conclusions This large-scale prospective study using device-measured data demonstrated that increased MVPA was associated with a lower risk of cardiac conduction disease, whereas greater proportions of sedentary behavior or sleep were associated with a higher risk. These findings highlight the importance of promoting an active lifestyle that protects cardiac conduction.