Dissecting the Role of Physical Activity and Sleep in Metabolically Healthy Obese Subjects: A National Study

Abstract

In the last decade, researchers brought attention to a subgroup of obesity that has a lower risk of cardiometabolic abnormalities. Considering Qatar is one of the top-ranked countries in terms of obesity, this study aims to use data from Qatar Biobank to characterize the Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) phenotype comprehensively and to investigate if modifiable lifestyle factors can explain the reasons behind the lack of metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk factors in MHO. A total of 1491 Qatari adults were divided into 4 subgroups based on the BMI and harmonized international definition of Metabolic syndrome criteria. Population living with obesity were defined by a BMI ≥ 30 Kg/m2 and metabolically healthy participants by less than <3 MetS criteria. Multiple logistic regression was used to study the association between MHO and modifiable lifestyle factors including physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and sleep. MHO group was found to be younger, has more females, are insulin sensitive, more active, and less sedentary, compared to Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO). There was no significant difference in sleep duration among study groups. This study concludes that there is an association between MHO and physical activity and there is an association between MUO and all modifiable lifestyle factors included above. This highlights the difference in cardiometabolic risk in MHO and MUO can be explained by the modifiable lifestyle factor.