AS THE SEASONS GO, WE GO
Researcher looking at obesity links
Do you just want to chill on the couch when the mercury hits 30 C or huddle at home when the temperature plunges to -30 C?
A University of Regina professor is wondering exactly how that might affect your health.
A research team at the U of R, led by Katya Herman, assistant professor in the faculty of kinesiology and health studies, is looking for people to participate in a study to determine how the seasons affect their physical activity.
In prehistoric times, humans were much more active in the summer as they hunted and foraged for food and ran from predators, she said.
“Now we don’t even have to leave the couch to get groceries,” Herman said. “You can order your groceries and have them delivered to your door. You don’t even have to walk around the grocery store, never mind find your next meal in the field.”
The prevalence of obesity in Saskatchewan is higher than average among Canadian provinces, but not the highest (the Maritimes and the North are higher).
The classic comparison is to B.C., which has a much more moderate climate, Herman said.
She wants to know if more variable climate is more likely to produce inconsistent physical activity patterns or if other factors, such as seasonal work demands, play a role.
“We do have extremes in climate, not just in the winter,” Herman said. “When it’s minus 40, no one wants to go outside, but even in the summer where we’ve lately had the 30 degrees, is that possibly something that can affect physical activity levels in this province, especially in terms of consistency over the entire year?”
Everyone knows physical activity is good for them, she said.
“But still we’re an underactive population and we’re becoming a more and more sedentary population,” Herman said.
She’s looking at variations during the year with the same individuals in her three-year research project called SeasonActiv, funded by the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.
The goal of the study, which started in May 2016 is to involve 200 participants.
The researchers require 50 more healthy participants, between the ages of 20 to 65, who are not on any cholesterol, blood pressure or diabetes medications.
Participants get an overall health assessment over four consecutive seasons. Each session lasts between 60 and 90 minutes.
At each assessment, the participant’s height, weight, body composition, blood pressure and grip strength is measured in addition to cholesterol and glucose levels.
Additionally, each person completes a questionnaire describing their daily activities and wears a research version of a Fitbit for seven days to measure their physical activity. “It’s a more sensitive, technical version of the Fitbit giving us movement in counts per movement,” Herman said.
She’s curious to know if there are differences between “weekend warriors” and people who exercise for 30 minutes daily.
“Do we need to be consistently active? Intuitively, we think yes, but there isn’t any research that shows that,” Herman said. “If you think of animals who hibernate in the winter, they’re not having heart attacks and issues because of it.”
The study is strictly observational, no exercise is required.
“We just expect them to live their lives as usual,” Herman said. “They get their personal results each time, which has been a big hit — more than I expected.”
When the study wraps up, the data will be analyzed in 2018 by graduate students and undergraduate honour students in kinesiology.
“At the end of the day, we’ll have probably a couple thousand variables per person,” Herman said. “We can address many research questions, but our main research question is looking at this idea of consistency versus inconsistency of physical activity and whether that makes a difference or not to health outcomes.”
Those interested in participating can fill out the contact form at http://www2.uregina.ca/khs/pa-epi-lab/seasonactiv/, email Season.Activ@uregina.ca, or call the physical activity epidemiology lab at 306-337-3140.