Association of the "Weekend Warrior" and other leisure-time physical activity patterns with neurological disorders in adulthood: a UK biobank study.

BACKGROUND

The weekend warrior (WW) exercise pattern, where individuals accumulate the recommended 150-min moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) over 1-2 days, has become a popular alternative to daily physical activity routines. This study investigates the association of WW and other leisure-time physical activity patterns with the risk of neurological diseases, specifically sleep disorders, migraines, and epilepsy.

METHODS

This study includes data from 93,684 participants, obtained from the UK Biobank. MVPA patterns were categorized into inactive, regularly active, and WW groups. Cox proportional hazards models, restricted cubic splines (RCS), and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to assess the impact of exercise patterns on the risk of neurological diseases.

RESULTS

Both the WW and regularly active groups exhibited significantly lower risks for sleep disorders, migraine, and epilepsy than the inactive group. In the fully adjusted analyses, weekend warrior activity was associated with a 16.8% lower risk of sleep disorders, a 23.9% lower risk of migraine, and a 25.3% lower risk of epilepsy compared with inactivity. The results of RCS curves for these disorders further supported these findings.

CONCLUSIONS

The WW pattern offers similar benefits to daily exercise in reducing the risk of neurological disorders, particularly sleep disorders, migraine, and epilepsy. This finding suggests that WW activity may be a practical and flexible approach to disease prevention in modern societies.