Healthy behaviors and circadian patterns determined by actigraphy in researchers and administrative personnel as protective factors against metabolic disease and obesity

Objectives Three important, directly-causal, behavioral risk factors for obesity and its metabolic consequences are: food consumption, sedentary lifestyle and circadian disruption, such as social jet-lag, which should also partially explain the relevance of known, indirectly-causal, such as educational level, socio-economic status and/or type of job and its conditions. In this study we use actigraphy as a means to quantify and understand those differences in behaviors or conducts, related to 1) physical activity and 2) circadian disruption, which can explain observed differences in metabolic health in two different populations. Methods Metabolic and anthropometric data were taken from a population of university workers segmented by educational level – administrative workers (bachelor’s degree) and researchers (Masters or PhD degree) – Actigraphs collected temperature, acceleration, luxes and time in movement; participants use them for at least 1 week. Actigraphy data were divided in weekdays and weekends for analysis. Results We show that body mass index and metabolic syndrome criteria were significantly worse for the lower educational level group. Correspondingly, significant differences were found between administrative personnel and researchers across all measured actigraphy parameters – activity level, acceleration, light exposure and temperature. The most relevant differences are that researchers presented significantly more/less time in high/low-activity conducts, less differences in activity level between weekdays and weekends, and less social jet-lag than administrative personnel. Conclusions Researchers have healthier habits both in terms of voluntary physical activity and less circadian disruption, showing how work environment can be an important determinant of the degree to which healthy habits can be adopted. Highlights ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by postdoctoral fellowship DGAPA-UNAM to E. Espitia-Bautista, DGAPA-PAPIIT project IV101520, CONACyT Fronteras project 1093 and a donation from Microsoft Academic Relations. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics Committee of the Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM;FM/DI/152/2016) gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors