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SIT LESS 3: The Effect of Low Intensity Physical Activity on Insulin Sensitivity, Mood and Cognitive Performance

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Overweight
Obesity
Interventions
Behavioral: Physical activity regime
Registration Number
NCT02394249
Lead Sponsor
Maastricht University Medical Center
Brief Summary

Background of the study:

A sedentary lifestyle and obesity are well known risk factors of type 2 diabetes. The major focus of current guidelines for type 2 diabetes prevention is on energy balance. Physical activity guidelines recommend at least 30 minutes/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). However, no advice is given how the other 23.5 hours of the day should be spent. Several recent epidemiologic studies suggest that excessive sitting, independent of moderate to vigorous physical activity, has detrimental health effects. Another possibility to sit less is by increasing low intensity physical activities as slowly walking and standing. A recent published study of Duvivier and colleagues suggests that sitting less and replacing it by slowly walking and standing has a better effect on insulin action and cardiovascular risk factors than the combination of one hour MVPA per day and sitting the rest of the day in healthy subjects (Duvivier et al. PLOS ONE 2013). Until now this research is not performed in subjects with overweight/obesity.

Objective of the study:

To assess the effect of low intensity physical activity on plasma insulin levels, cognition and mood in subjects with overweight/obesity

Study population:

21 subjects between 40-80 years old with overweight/obesity

Intervention:

2 activity regimes of 4 days: a sitting regime and a "sit less" regime

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
24
Inclusion Criteria
  • Signed informed consent
  • Men and postmenopausal women: 40-80 years old
  • BMI: 25.0 - 35.0 kg/m2
  • Maximum 2.5 hours of MVPA per week (during last 3 months)
  • Having a general practitioner
  • Agreeing to be informed about medically relevant personal test-results by a physician
  • Accessible veins on arms as determined by examination at screening
Exclusion Criteria
  • Reported participation in another biomedical trial which may have an effect on insulin sensitivity one month before the pre-study examination or during the study
  • Blood donation in the past three months
  • Reported participation in night shift work 2 weeks prior to pre-study investigation or during the study. Night work is defined as working between midnight and 6.00 AM.
  • Consumption of >14 (women) or > 21 (men) alcoholic units per week
  • Reported dietary habits: medically prescribed diet, slimming diet;
  • Reported weight loss (>2kg) in the last three months prior to the screening;
  • Not being able to execute at least three (out of four) cognition tests in the training session
  • Not being able to execute the sit less try-out day
  • Being an employee of Unilever or the collaborating research departments in Maastricht University Medical Centre
  • Experimental drug use (during the last 3 months)
  • Use of insulin, oral blood glucose lowering medication (metformin and/or SU-derivatives and/or DPP-IV inhibitors), corticosteroids or vitamin K antagonists in the last 3 months
  • Fasting plasma glucose level > 6.9 mmol/L
  • Medical conditions which make participation in the study not responsible which will be decided by a medical doctor during screening
  • Other clinically relevant abnormalities in clinical chemistry at screening (to be judged by a medical doctor)
  • Mental or physical disability which interferes with physical activity

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
CROSSOVER
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Sitting regimePhysical activity regimeThe subjects will follow the sitting regime during four days. Each day: 14 hours sitting, 1 hour walking and 1 hour standing and 8 hours sleeping.
Sit Less regimePhysical activity regimeSubjects will follow the sit less regime during four days. Each day will consist of 9 hours sitting, 4 hours walking, 3 hours standing and 8 hours sleeping. The walking and standing will be done in a minimum of eight bouts with a time interval of \>1 hour. The subjects will be instructed to walk on a slow pace, i.e. 2-3 km/h, which is comparable to walking during shopping, walking to the office etc.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Plasma insulin levels (measured as area under the curve during an oral glucose tolerance test)one day after each regime

To assess the effect of low intensity physical activity (LIPA) on plasma insulin levels (as measured as area under the curve during an oral glucose tolerance test)

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Plasma total cholesterolone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma total cholesterol

Plasma C-peptideone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma C-peptide

Plasma triglyceridesone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma triglycerides

Plasma non-HDL cholesterolone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma non-HDL cholesterol

Attention (measured by the Attention Network Task)one day after each regime before and after the oral glucose tolerance test

To assess the effect of LIPA on attention

Memory (measured by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task)one day after each regime before and after the oral glucose tolerance test

To assess the effect of LIPA on memory

Plasma interleukin 1one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma interleukin 1

Insulin sensitivity (measured as Matsuda combined insulin sensitivity index during an oral glucose tolerance test)one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on insulin sensitivity

Plasma glucose levelsone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma glucose levels

Plasma apolipoprotein Aone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma apolipoprotein A

Mood (measured by the Affect Grid mood scale)2 days: last day of each regime and one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on mood

Plasma TNF-alphaone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma TNF-alpha

Plasma interferon gammaone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma interferon gamma

Plasma E-selectineone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma E-selectine

Plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF)one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma vWF

Blood pressureone day after each regime
Plasma HDL cholesterolone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma HDL cholesterol

Plasma LDL cholesterolone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma LDL cholesterol

Plasma free fatty acidsone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma free fatty acids

Plasma apolipoprotein Bone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma apolipoprotein B

Plasma ICAM-1one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma ICAM-1

Plasma VCAMone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma VCAM

To explore the association between plasma glucose, plasma insulin, insulin sensitivity and mood, cognitive performance, quality of life and sleepone day after each regime
Executive Function (measured by the Trail Making Test)one day after each regime before and after the oral glucose tolerance test

To assess the effect of LIPA on executive function

Quality of life (measured by the Gill 32-item questionnaire)last day of each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on quality of life

Sleep (measured by the 10-item Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index)last day of each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on sleep

Plasma C-reactive proteinone day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma C-reactive protein

Plasma serum amyloid A (SAA)one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma SAA

Plasma PAI-1one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma PAI-1

Plasma interleukin 6one day after each regime

To assess the effect of LIPA on plasma interleukin 6

Heart rateone day after each regime

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Human Movement Science, Maastricht University

🇳🇱

Maastricht, Netherlands

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