Associations of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity timing with type 2 diabetes incidence in UK Biobank and prevalent glycemic measures in NHANES

Feng, Q.Y.; Albalak, G.; Ao, L.J.; Xiao, Q.; Wang, H.M.; Velde, J.H.P.M. van der; ... ; Noordam, R. (2026)

Article / Letter to editor

Objective: We assessed the association between timing of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) and glycemic measures. Research design and methods: Regression models were used to assess associations between accelerometer-derived MVPA timing and incident T2D in UK Biobank (UKB) (n = 84,528, prospective), prevalent diabetes, and glycemic measures in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (n = 6,998, cross-sectional). Results: In UKB, with early morning (0500-0959) MVPA as reference and before adjustment for total MVPA, "variable-timing" MVPA was associated with the lowest incident T2D risk; while after adjustment, afternoon-evening MVPA (1500-2400) showed the lowest incident T2D risk. In NHANES, afternoon/early evening MVPA was weakly associated with more favorable glycemic measures and lower diabetes prevalence after adjustment for total MVPA. Conclusions: When keeping total MVPA volume constant, clustering MVPA in the afternoon-evening was associated with the strongest reduction in incident T2D risk, fewer prevalent diabetes, and more favorable glycemic measures.

• All authors: Feng, Q.Y.; Albalak, G.; Ao, L.J.; Xiao, Q.; Wang, H.M.; Velde, J.H.P.M. van der; Kiefte-de Jong, J.C.; Rutter, M.K.; Matthews, C.E.; Freeman, J.R.; Dijk, K.W. van; Heemst, D. van; Noordam, R.
• Date: 2026-03-01
• Journal: Diabetes Care
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 3
• DOI: doi:10.2337/dc25-2095
• Link: https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/49/3/444/164239/Associations-o...