Background and objective: Our purpose was to evaluate in a cross-section, populational study the association between daily physical activity and various metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Patients and method: A total of 1226 randomly selected persons (aged 18-65 years) from a town in southeast Spain were evaluated for studying the association between the level of daily physical activity, both in and out of working hours, and the following variables: body mass index, plasma lipids, hypertension, obesity, altered baseline glycemia, and abnormal glucose tolerance.
Results: The intensity of the physical activity at work was related negatively with insulin resistance and levels of LDL cholesterol, and positively with HDL cholesterol. The probability of hypertension, altered baseline glycemia, and abnormal glucose tolerance was greater in those undertaking less daily physical activity.
Conclusions: Daily physical activity, considered as part of the lifestyle, is related with the presence of components of the metabolic syndrome. An increase in daily physical activity should contribute to improve preventible cardiovascular risk factors.