3.4. Correlations between Lifestyle Behaviours and Cardiometabolic Outcomes
Pearson’s correlation coefficients are included in Greater daily vegetable serves were associated with reduced fat mass percentage, and meeting the daily vegetable intake recommendation was associated with a significant reduction in waist circumference. Meeting the recommended daily fruit intake was associated with a reduction in BMI, waist circumference, and average diastolic BP. Diets with greater intake of processed meats, hot chips, salty snacks, soft drinks, and takeaway occurrences were each independently associated with increased BMI and waist circumference. Greater number of takeaway occurrences and soft drink intake were further correlated with increased fat mass percentage. Increased salty snack serves was associated with increased systolic and diastolic BP, whilst higher soft drink intake correlated with increased systolic BP only.Meeting the recommended weekly 150 min of physical activity and five sessions per week both independently correlated with lower BMI, waist circumference, fat mass percentage, and diastolic BP. Stronger correlations with these cardiometabolic outcomes were found for women fulfilling both physical activity recommendations concurrently. Meeting both physical activity (150 min per week in at least five sessions) and dietary recommendations (five vegetables and two fruits per day) was associated with reduced BMI, waist circumference and systolic and diastolic BP.Outcomes of greater walking and vigorous physical activity were independently associated with improved outcomes such as reduced BMI and waist circumference. However, greater minutes of vigorous household chores and vigorous yard work were associated with worsened cardiometabolic outcomes, such as increased waist circumference, fat mass percentage, and systolic BP.More alcohol intake occurrences were associated with reduced BMI and waist circumference, whereas greater number of standard drinks consumed each week was only associated with reduced BMI. Alcohol intake was found to be greater in women with fewer children.Smoking correlated with increased BMI, waist circumference, and fat mass percentage, whilst breastfeeding was found to be weight protective in all domains and cardioprotective with added reduction in systolic BP. Having a greater number of children was associated with generally reduced adherence to recommended weekly physical activity and increased weekly household chores and yard work.These correlations were statistically significant.