Men of South Asian origin may need to exercise 20 minutes longer than their Europeans counterparts, according to a new ethnic-specific research published today.
While the current guidelines recommend all adults to take at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week (equivalent to brisk walk for 30 minutes 5 days per week), the revised findings advises a workout of 250 minutes for South Asian men.
The study, conducted by University of Glasgow's Institute for Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, put 75 South Asian and 83 European men aged between 40 and 70 under observation, measuring their physical activity over a week.
It used motion sensing devices and assessed their risk of heart disease and diabetes by measuring the levels of sugar, insulin and fats in their bloodstream, as well as their blood pressure.
Researchers adopted statistical analysis techniques to determine each person's heart disease and diabetes risk profile and its variation with physical activity level in the two ethnic groups.
Physical activity may ultimately need to be freshly looked at to take ethnic differences for diseases-susceptibility into account.
The study, published in the latest issue of medical journal PLOS ONE, represents a significant departure from the current one-size-fits-all policy.
"While this would be a new suggestion for physical activity guidelines, the concept of ethnicity-specific public health guidelines has already been adopted for obesity," said Dr Jason Gill of University of Glasgow's Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences.
Earlier this year the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE) recommended that Asians need to achieve lower levels of body mass index (BMI) than Europeans for prevention of diabetes, challenging the notion that a BMI threshold of 30 kg.M-2 for obesity is appropriate for all ethnic groups.
"Our findings extend the concept of ethnicity-specific public health guidance to the domain of physical activity," Ghouri said.
