title: Sedentary behaviour and physical activity in South Asian women: time to review current recommendations?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aims were to describe activity and sedentary behaviours in urban Asian women, with dysglycaemia (diagnosed at recruitment), and without dysglycaemia and examine the relative contribution of these parameters to their glycaemic status.
  
  
  METHODS
  2800 urban women (30-45 years) were selected by random cluster sampling and screened for dysglycaemia for a final sample of 272 newly diagnosed, drug naive dysglycaemic and 345 normoglycaemic women. Physical activity and sedentary behaviours were assessed by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Demographic data, diet and anthropometry were recorded. Logistic regression analysis assessed contribution of all parameters to dysglycaemia and exposure attributable fractions were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean energy expenditure on walking (2648.5±1023.7 MET-min/week) and on moderate and vigorous physical activity (4342.3±1768.1 MET-min/week) for normoglycemic women and dysglycaemic women (walking;1046.4±728.4 MET-min/week, moderate and vigorous physical activity; 1086.7±1184.4 MET-min/week) was above the recommended amount of physical activity per week. 94.3% of women spent >1000 MET-minutes/week on activity. Mean sitting and TV time for normoglycaemic and dysglycaemic women were 154.3±62.8, 38.4±31.9, 312.6±116.7 and 140.2±56.5 minutes per day respectively. Physical activity and sedentary behaviour contributed to dysglycaemia after adjustment for family history, diet, systolic blood pressure and Body Mass Index. Exposure attributable fractions for dysglycaemia were; lower physical activity: 78%, higher waist circumference: 94%, and TV viewing time: 85%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urban South Asian women are at risk of dysglycaemia at lower levels of sedentary behaviour and greater physical activity than western populations, indicating the need for re-visiting current physical activity guidelines for South Asians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: Indu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Waidyatilaka
authors.forename: Pulani
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lanerolle
authors.forename: Rajitha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wickremasinghe
authors.forename: Sunethra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Atukorala
authors.forename: Noel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Somasundaram
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Silva
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D044466:Asian People; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis*; D003710:Demography; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D012044:Regression Analysis; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013188:Sri Lanka; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose