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. 2022 Aug 15;19(4):561-571.
doi: 10.1177/15598276221118044. eCollection 2025 May-Jun.

The Association of Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity with Different Measurements of Metabolic Syndrome: The Jackson Heart Study

Robert Booker  1 , Bettina M Beech  1 , Marino A Bruce  1 , Roland J Thorpe Jr  1 , Keith C Norris  1 , Elizabeth Heitman  1 , Robert L Newton Jr  1 , Megan E Holmes  1
Affiliations

The Association of Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity with Different Measurements of Metabolic Syndrome: The Jackson Heart Study

Robert Booker et al. Am J Lifestyle Med. .

Abstract

Purpose: Cross-sectional investigation of the association of sedentary behavior and physical activity with metabolic syndrome (MetS) among the African American participants in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). Methods: Prevalence, number of individual components, and MetS severity z-score (MetS-Z) were examined. MetS was classified using ATP-III thresholds. MetS-Z was calculated using sex-, race-, and ethnicity-specific formulas. Sedentary behavior and physical activity were calculated from the JHS Physical Activity Cohort survey (JPAC). Associations between sedentary behavior and physical activity with MetS were assessed by logistic, negative binomial, and ordinary least squares regressions. Results: The mean participant age (N = 3370) was 61.7 ± 11.9 years and most were female (63.9%). Among all participants, 60.5% were classified with MetS. Overall MetS-Z was moderately high (.31 ± 1.07). Most waking hours were sedentary, with just under 40 daily minutes of self-reported physical activity. Physical activity was associated with lower prevalence of MetS, the number of individual components, and MetS-Z score (p < .05). Sedentary behavior was not associated with MetS in any fully adjusted models (p > .05). Conclusions: Physical activity was associated with lower cardiometabolic risk, irrespective of sedentary behavior. Further studies are needed to better understand why no relation was found between sedentary behavior and cardiometabolic risk in this cohort of African American adults.

Keywords: African Americans; Metabolic syndrome; cardiometabolic risk; movement behaviors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institutes of Health; or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participant inclusion and exclusion criteria.
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