Background The benefit of physical activity (PA) for increasing longevity is well-established, however, the impact
of diurnal timing of PA on mortality remains poorly understood. We aimed to derive circadian PA patterns and investigate
their associations with all-cause mortality.
Methods We used 24 h PA time series from 96,351 UK Biobank participants aged between 42 and 79 years at accelerometry
in 2013–2015. Functional principal component analysis (fPCA) was applied to obtain circadian PA patterns.
Using multivariable Cox proportional hazard models, we related the loading scores of these fPCs to estimate risk
of mortality.
Results During 6.9 years of follow-up, 2,850 deaths occurred. Four distinct fPCs accounted for 96% of the variation
of the accelerometry data. Using a loading score of zero (i.e., average overall PA during the day) as the reference,
a fPC1 score of + 2 (high overall PA) was inversely associated with mortality (Hazard ratio, HR = 0.91; 95% CI: 0.84–0.99),
whereas a score of -2 (low overall PA) was associated with higher mortality (1.69; 95% CI: 1.57–1.81; p for non-linearity
< 0.001). Significant inverse linear associations with mortality were observed for engaging in midday PA instead
of early and late PA (fPC3) (HR for a 1-unit increase 0.88; 95% CI: 0.83–0.93). In contrast, midday and nocturnal PA
instead of early and evening PA (fPC4) were positively associated with mortality (HR for a 1-unit increase 1.16; 95% CI:
1.08–1.25).
Conclusion Our results suggest that it is less important during which daytime hours one is active but rather,
to engage in some level of elevated PA for longevity.