Author Interviews, CDC, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA, Lifestyle & Health / 24.11.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily N Ussery, PhD Epidemiologist LT, US Public Health Service Physical Activity and Health Branch National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Sitting for too long and being physically inactive can have negative health consequences, and it is important to understand how common these behaviors are among US adults. This study describes sitting time and leisure-time physical activity reported by US adults in a national survey. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Exercise - Fitness, Lifestyle & Health, Weight Research / 27.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Arch G. Mainous III, PhD HSRMP Department Chair Florida Blue Endowed Professor of Health Administration University of Florida Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: As our post-industrial society becomes more and more sedentary, there is a concern that a lack of activity is associated with poor health outcomes like diabetes. At the same time, the medical community has a strong focus on determining whether patients are overweight or obese as a way to classify them as  being at higher risk for poor health outcomes. However, individuals at a “healthy weight” in general, are considered to be at low risk. Some recent studies have shown that many individuals at “healthy weight” are not metabolically healthy. How then might we predict who at “healthy weight” would be unhealthy? We hypothesized that individuals at “healthy weight” who had a sedentary lifestyle would be more likely to have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Emory, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, Heart Disease, Lifestyle & Health / 18.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vasiliki Georgiopoulou MD MPH PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) Emory University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Although existing evidence suggests that more exercise capacity is associated with lower risk of CV disease and death, we don’t know whether more exercise capacity would lead to lower risk for heart failure also. This would be especially important for older adults, who are the group with the highest risk to develop heart failure. We used the data of a cohort study to test this association. The exercise capacity was evaluated by a walking test that is easy to perform – the long-distance corridor walk test. We observed that older adults who were able to complete the test had the lowest risk to develop heart failure and the lowest mortality rates, when compared with those who were not able to complete the test and those who could not do the test for medical reasons. We also observed that changes in exercise capacity 4 years later did not predict subsequent heart failure or mortality – perhaps because less fit older patients had already developed heart failure or had died. (more…)
Author Interviews, CT Scanning, Heart Disease, Lifestyle & Health / 16.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jacquelyn Kulinski, MD Assistant Professor Division of Cardiovascular Medicine Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI 53226 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kulinski: Sedentary behavior, or “sitting disease”, is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and early death.  Many of these associations appear to be independent of exercise activity. The mechanisms through which sedentary behavior influences cardiovascular risk are largely unknown.  Therefore, we investigated the association between accelerometer measured sedentary behavior and coronary artery calcium (CAC), a marker of subclinical heart disease, in over 2,000 participants using data from the Dallas Heart Study (DHS) population. We found a significant association between increasing sitting time and CAC in a population without prior history of cardiovascular disease.  This association was independent of measured exercise activity, traditional risk factors, and even socioeconomic factors.  Each hour of sedentary time was associated with a 16% increase in CAC burden.  Interestingly, the association between exercise and CAC was not significant in the fully-adjusted model.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Lifestyle & Health, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 08.03.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Chance York PhD School of Journalism and Mass Communication Kent State University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Dr. York: A number of studies have examined the effects of heavy television viewing during childhood on childhood levels of Body Mass Index (BMI), but my study added a new element to this literature: it explores the long-term effects of TV viewing on adult-era BMI. The major takeaway is that heavy television viewing during childhood results in an individual propensity to watch TV much later in life, and this propensity to watch television results in increased BMI. In other words, kids who watch a lot of television tend to remain heavy TV users as adults, and the fact that they're heavy TV viewers as adults has a separate, unique effect on their adult BMI. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Lifestyle & Health / 11.08.2015

Lucas J. Carr, PhD Department of Health and Human Physiology University of Iowa Iowa City IA 52242MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lucas J. Carr, PhD Department of Health and Human Physiology University of Iowa Iowa City IA 52242 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Carr: Office employees are exposed to hazardous levels of sedentary work which is now known to contribute negatively to both physical and mental health. This study tested the effect of retrofitting standard office desks with portable elliptical machines for the purpose of increasing the physical activity levels of sedentary office workers while they are at work. This approach is slightly different that traditional approaches which ask employees to be more active during non-working hours.  We found employees provided the pedal devices became more active while at work and pedaled an average of 50 minutes per day over four months. These findings suggest this approach was successful at increasing physical activity levels of employees while at work and over a fairly long period of time. (more…)