Study: Sitting may be deadly

Sitting too much can be bad for one’s health, with a new study of some 200,000 Australians showing the one who sits the most may likely die the soonest. The study suggested that while the death risk was much lower for anyone who exercised five hours a week or more, it still rose as these active people sat longer, TheAtlantic.com reported. “Its most striking finding was that people who sat more than 11 hours a day had a 40 percent higher risk of dying in the next three years than people who sat less than four hours a day. This was after adjusting for factors such as age, weight, physical activity and general health status, all of which affect the death risk. It also found a clear dose-response effect: the more people sat, the higher their risk of death,” it said. The study by Hidde van der Ploeg, Tien Chey, Rosemary Korda, Emily Banks, and Adrian Bauman linked prospective questionnaire data from 222,497 individuals 45 years or older from the 45 and Up Study to mortality data from the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Australia) from February 1, 2006, through December 31, 2010. "Prolonged sitting is a risk factor for all-cause mortality, independent of physical activity. Public health programs should focus on reducing sitting time in addition to increasing physical activity levels," they said in their conclusion. Earlier studies in past years have found that death risks rise when people watch spend more leisure time in front of a computer screen or TV or simply sit too much, it added. The latest study was more direct, looking at the relationship of total daily sitting time to the likelihood of dying within the next three years. Also, the study compared the self-reported daily sitting time of 222,497 Australian adults 45 years or older with their likelihood of death in the next three years. “Healthy or sick, active or inactive, the more people sat, the more likely they were to die in the next three years,” it said. Physical activity TheAtlantic.com said the study showed physical activity reduced this risk significantly, with the 40-percent higher death risk found when comparing people who sat the most to those who sat the least increased to 100 percent when comparing those who sat the most and exercised the least to those who sat the least and exercised the most. “But while the death risk was much lower for anyone who exercised five hours a week or more, it still rose as these active people sat longer,” it said. It added an accompanying editorial suggests evidence is now strong enough that doctors should prescribe reduced sitting time to their patients. Also, it cited an estimate that the average adult spends 90 percent of his or her leisure time sitting, “so there’s plenty of room for improvement.” — LBG, GMA News