| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a life-altering condition, disrupting the neural transmission, leading to paralysis and sensory loss, which makes them prone to a physically inactive and sedentary lifestyle. Low levels of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Most data on SB and PA in individuals with SCI relies, however, on self-reporting measures. The objectives of this study was to monitor SB and PA by objective methods and to examine the associations between these measures and the risk of CVD for individuals with SCI.
Methods: A cross-sectional study, in which 18 individuals with SCI were recruited, 13 men and five women, with a mean age of 53.2 ± 10.6 years. Eleven participants were ambulatory and seven were manual wheelchair users (MWU). SB and PA were measured using an activity monitor (Actigraph wGT3X-BT) for eight consecutive days in their home-environment. The monitor was mounted on the hip for those being ambulatory and on the dominant wrist for the MWU. The SB was measured in minutes per day (min/day) and in percentage of wear-time. The PA levels were categorized as time (min/day) spent in light– moderate– or vigorous activity and percentage of wear-time. Steps per day were also measured for ambulatory participants. CVD risk was calculated by using the Framingham Risk Score (FRS), which is based on multiple risk variables for CVD. Associations were examined with correlation analyses.
Results: Sixteen participants had valid activity measurements, with a mean wear time of 7.3 ± 1.3 days and 14.6 ± 2.1 hours a day. Those being ambulatory spent a mean of 609 min/day sedentary and those being MWU 642 min/day. The time spent in light PA was 159 min/day (19.6%) for the ambulatory participants and 323 min/day (33.9%) for the MWU. Only those being ambulatory had spent time in moderate– (4.1%) and vigorous (0.06%) PA. The mean FRS was 11.9 ± 7.5%. A significant positive correlation (r = 0.606) was found between SB in min/day and the FRS (p = 0.039), but only for the MWU. No other significant correlations between SB, PA and FRS were found
Conclusion: This study indicates that individuals with SCI spend most time in SB. The mean time spent in moderate– and vigorous PA for ambulatory individuals were 34.5 min/day, while MWU did not spend any minutes above light PA. Our participants showed a mean moderate risk of CVD. Our study only found an association between SB min/day and the FRS for MWU. | en_US |
