Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity and Cancer Incidence Among Nonexercising Adults

Emmanuel Stamatakis, Matthew N. Ahmadi, Christine M. Friedenreich, Joanna M. Blodgett, Annemarie Koster, Andreas Holtermann, Andrew Atkin, Vegar Rangul, Lauren B. Sherar, Armando Teixeira-Pinto, Ulf Ekelund, I-Min Lee, Mark Hamer

Vigorous physical activity (VPA) is a time-efficient way to achieve recommended physical activity (PA) for cancer prevention, although structured longer bouts of VPA (via traditional exercise) are unappealing or inaccessible to many individuals. To evaluate the dose-response association of device-measured daily vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) with incident cancer, and to estimate the minimal dose required for a risk reduction of 50% of the maximum reduction. This was a prospective cohort analysis of 22 398 self-reported nonexercising adults from the UK Biobank accelerometry subsample. Participants were followed up through October 30, 2021 (mortality and hospitalizations), or June 30, 2021 (cancer registrations). Daily VILPA of up to 1 and up to 2 minutes, assessed by accelerometers worn on participants' dominant wrist. Incidence of total cancer and PA-related cancer (a composite outcome of 13 cancer sites associated with low PA levels). Hazard ratios and 95% CIs were estimated using cubic splines adjusted for age, sex, education level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, sleep duration, fruit and vegetable consumption, parental cancer history, light- and moderate-intensity PA, and VPA from bouts of more than 1 or 2 minute(s), as appropriate. The study sample comprised 22 398 participants (mean [SD] age, 62.0 [7.6] years; 10 122 [45.2%] men and 12 276 [54.8%] women; 21 509 [96.0%] White individuals). During a mean (SD) follow-up of 6.7 (1.2) years (149 650 person-years), 2356 total incident cancer events occurred, 1084 owing to PA-related cancer. Almost all (92.3%) of VILPA was accrued in bouts of up to 1 minute. Daily VILPA duration was associated with outcomes in a near-linear manner, with steeper dose-response curves for PA-related cancer than total cancer incidence. Compared with no VILPA, the median daily VILPA duration of bouts up to 1 minute (4.5 minutes per day) was associated with an HR of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.69-0.92) for total cancer and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.55-0.86) for PA-related cancer. The minimal dose was 3.4 minutes per day for total (HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73-0.93) and 3.7 minutes for PA-related (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.59-0.88) cancer incidence. Findings were similar for VILPA bout of up to 2 minutes. The findings of this prospective cohort study indicate that small amounts of VILPA were associated with lower incident cancer risk. Daily VILPA may be a promising intervention for cancer prevention in populations not able or motivated to exercise in leisure time.