Abstract Background Although active
commuting is inversely related to
cardiovascular disease risk factors, these
associations are unknown among Brazilian
primary health care users. Objective To investigate the
association between active
commuting to daily activities and the
prevalence of cardiometabolic
diseases.
Methods This
cross-sectional study, conducted between May and August 2019, included
primary health care users from all 34
primary health care centers in Passo Fundo, a city in southern
Brazil. Cardiometabolic
diseases (
type 2 diabetes,
hypertension,
hypercholesterolemia,
hypertriglyceridemia,
cardiovascular diseases, and
overweight/
obesity) were measured by
self-reported medical
diagnosis using a
questionnaire. Active
commuting was analyzed dichotomously daily
commuting on
foot or by bicycle was considered active, while daily
commuting by
car,
motorcycle, or bus was considered passive. To determine the
association between cardiometabolic
diseases and active
commuting, crude and adjusted
prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated using Poisson regression, considering p <0.05 significant. Results The sample consisted of 1443
patients. There was an inverse
association between active
commuting and
type 2 diabetes (PR 0.59; 95% CI [
Confidence Interval] 0.39-0.90) and
overweight/
obesity (PR 0.83 95% CI 0.71-0.98). Conclusion A lower
prevalence of
type 2 diabetes and
obesity/
overweight was observed in people
who actively commute. These findings indicate that changes in urban
infrastructure to enable safe active
commuting will positively impact the
health of the
population.