Association between “weekend warrior” physical activity and the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases

While guidelines recommend 150 ​min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) weekly to enhance health, it remains unclear whether concentrating these activities into 1–2 days of the week, “weekend warrior” (WW) pattern, has the same benefit for neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). This study aimed to evaluate the associations of WW pattern and the risk of NDDs. This prospective study was conducted using accelerometer-based physical activity data for a full week from June 2013 to December 2015 in the UK Biobank. These individuals were categorized into distinct physical activity patterns, including the WW pattern (i.e., over 50% or 75% of recommended MVPA achieved over 1–2 days), regular pattern, and inactive pattern. Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the association between physical activity patterns and outcomes. Compared to inactive group, WW pattern and regular pattern was similarly linked to a reduced risk of all-cause dementia (WW: Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.68, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.56–0.84; regular: HR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.67–1.1) and all-cause Parkinsonism (WW: HR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.35–0.63; regular: HR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.5–0.95). When the exercise threshold was increased to 75% of MVPA, both patterns still were associated with decreased risk of incident all-cause dementia (WW: HR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.41–0.91; regular: HR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.63–0.92) and all-cause Parkinsonism (WW: HR: 0.22, 95% CI: 0.10–0.47; regular: HR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.46–0.75). Concentrating recommended physical activities into 1–2 days per week is associated with a lower incidence of NDDs.