Age-specific association of physical activity on visceral obesity: Cross-sectional study

Aims

Obesity is a chronic disease that needs to be managed worldwide. High-intensity physical activity has a positive effect on the improvement and prevention of metabolic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the age-specific association of physical activity on abdominal and visceral obesity.

Methods

The study involved 456 health check-up participants who underwent abdominal computed tomography scans for the assessment of visceral fat area from January 2017 to December 2017. Physical activity levels were categorized as none-to-low-intensity or moderate-to-vigorous-intensity based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis, adjusted for covariates, assessed the association of physical activity with abdominal and visceral obesity across 10-year age intervals.

Results

The moderate-to-vigorous physical activity group showed 56.5% visceral obesity, while the none-to-low-intensity physical activity group had 63.2%. Most age groups exhibited no significant differences in abdominal or visceral obesity according to physical activity. However, the 50 to 59 age group demonstrated a noteworthy association between visceral obesity and none-to-low-intensity physical activity (odds ratio 3.79, 95% confidence interval 1.12–12.84).

Conclusions

This study highlights a distinct age-related response to physical activity, emphasizing the 50 to 59 age group's significant association between visceral obesity and none-to-low-intensity physical activity.