Individual Responsiveness to Exercise to Improve Health Outcomes in Women and Ethnically Minoritised Groups (360G-Wellcome-343963_Z_26_Z)

This project will investigate individualised cardiometabolic responses to exercise, with a view to supporting personalised type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevention. Specifically recruiting women, including those from ethnically minoritised groups, to contribute to addressing the underrepresentation of diversity in research. While women are often described as relatively “protected” from cardiometabolic disease, this perspective may obscure important physiological differences and delay targeted intervention, especially given the disproportionate burden of gestational diabetes and subsequent T2D risk. Two stages of research are proposed. First, a systematic review considering women with overweight and/or obesity and the impact of exercise-only interventions on cardiometabolic risk markers. This will inform intervention and outcome selection for the second stage of the research and identify whether heterogeneity in response is present. Second, a replicated crossover study will examine intra-individual variability in response to a short-term exercise intervention in premenopausal women with overweight and obesity. The primary outcome will be continuous metabolic syndrome severity z-score, enabling detection of subtle changes in preclinical risk. Secondary outcomes include individual metabolic markers and cardiorespiratory fitness. This work aims to advance precision medicine by distinguishing true physiological variability in response to exercise from day-to-day biological variation and measurement error.