Associations of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity Timing With Type 2 Diabetes Incidence in UK Biobank and Prevalent Glycemic Measures in NHANES

Authors

• Qiuyu Feng
• Gali Albalak
• Linjun Ao
• Qian Xiao
• Heming Wang
• Jeroen H P M van der Velde
• Jessica C Kiefte-de Jong
• Martin K Rutter
• Charles E Matthews
• Joshua R Freeman
• Ko Willems van Dijk
• Diana van Heemst
• Raymond Noordam

Language

English

Publication Date

3-1-2026

Journal

Diabetes Care

DOI

10.2337/dc25-2095

PMID

41511492

PMCID

PMC12925989

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

1-9-2026

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Humans, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Exercise, Male, United Kingdom, Nutrition Surveys, Middle Aged, Blood Glucose, Cross-Sectional Studies, Adult, Aged, UK Biobank, Accelerometry

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Feng, Qiuyu; Albalak, Gali; Ao, Linjun; et al., "Associations of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity Timing With Type 2 Diabetes Incidence in UK Biobank and Prevalent Glycemic Measures in NHANES" (2026). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 1578.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthsph_docs/1578