It’s well known that spending too much time on the couch can shorten your life.
Now, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have reported that moderate intensity, leisure-time physical activity can partially reduce the elevated risk of death from all causes due to prolonged sitting time.
In a study of 8,337 predominantly low-income and Black Americans ages 65 and older, the researchers found that those with the longest “sitting time” — more than 10 hours a day — had the highest mortality risk.
Their report, published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, followed participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study who recorded their daily sitting time and leisure-time physical activity between 2002 and 2009.
“High sedentary behavior is an independent risk factor for all-cause and (cardiovascular disease) mortality,” the researchers concluded. “These findings highlight the importance of promoting both leisure-time physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior for disease prevention.”
“We all sit a lot every day,” said the paper’s corresponding author, Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, MPH, the Anne Potter Wilson Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Epidemiology and the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center.
“I can easily sit more than 10 hours a day doing my work and having meetings,” Zheng said. “I think we should encourage everyone to reduce sitting time, such as using a standing computer desk.”
Zheng’s co-authors from VUMC were Lili Liu, MPH, Wanqing Wen, MD, MPH, Martha Shrubsole, PhD, Mark Steinwandel, MS, Loren Lipworth, ScD, and Staci Sudenga, PhD.
The study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant U01CA202979 and by the Anne Potter Wilson chair endowment to Vanderbilt University. Supported by the NIH’s National Cancer Institute, the Southern Community Cohort Study follows the health of a racially and economically diverse group of people in 12 southeastern states.