Sedentary lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is a type of lifestyle involving little or no physical activity. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like reading, socializing, watching television, playing video games, or using a mobile phone/computer for much of the day. A sedentary lifestyle can potentially contribute to ill health and many preventable causes of death.[1][2]
Screen time is a modern term for the amount of time a person spends looking at a screen such as a television, computer monitor, or mobile device. Excessive screen time is linked to negative health consequences.[3][4][5][6]
Definition
Sedentary behavior is not the same as physical inactivity: sedentary behavior is defined as "any waking behavior characterized by an energy expenditure less than or equal to 1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs), while in a sitting, reclining or lying posture". Spending most waking hours sitting does not necessarily mean that an individual is sedentary,[7] though sitting and lying down most frequently are sedentary behaviors.[8]
Health effects
Effects of a sedentary work life or lifestyle can be either direct or indirect. One of the most prominent direct effect of a sedentary lifestyle is an increased BMI leading to obesity. A lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of preventable death worldwide.[9]
At least 300,000 premature deaths, and $90 billion in direct healthcare costs are caused by obesity and sedentary lifestyle per year in the US alone.[10] The risk is higher among those that sit still more than 5 hours per day. It is shown to be a risk factor on its own independent of hard exercise and BMI. People that sit still more than 4 hours per day have a 40 percent higher risk than those that sit fewer than 4 hours per day. However, those that exercise at least 4 hours per week are as healthy as those that sit fewer than 4 hours per day.[11][12]
Indirectly, an increased BMI due to a sedentary lifestyle can lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism from necessary activities like work.[13] Missing work and not being productive results in obvious short term and long term effects like less income and job security.
A sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity can contribute to or be a risk factor for:
- Anxiety[14][15]
- Cardiovascular disease[16][17]
- Migraines
- Breast cancer [18]
- Colon cancer[15]
- Computer vision syndrome only for computers and tablets
- Depression[15][19]
- Diabetes[15][17]
- Gout
- High blood pressure[15][20]
- Lipid disorders[15]
- Skin problems such as hair loss[21]
- Mortality in adults[22][23]
- Obesity[24][25]
- Osteoporosis[15][26][27]
- Scoliosis[15][26][27]
- Spinal disc herniation (low back pain)[28]
Prevention
Adults and children spend long amounts of time sitting in the workplace and at school, which is why interventions have been focused in these two areas.[7]
In the workplace
Some workplaces have implemented exercise classes at lunch, walking challenges among coworkers, or allowing employees to stand rather than sit at their desks during work. Workplace interventions such as alternative activity workstations, sit-stand desks, and promotion of stair use are among measures implemented to counter the harms of a sedentary workplace.[29] A 2018 Cochrane review concluded that "at present there is very low quality evidence that sit-stand desks can reduce sitting at work at the short term. There is no evidence for other types of interventions." There is no high-quality evidence that such interventions provide long-term health benefits.[30]
In education
The majority of time children are in a classroom, they are seated (60% of the time).[7] Children who regularly engage in physical activity are more likely to become healthy adults; children benefit both physically and mentally when they replace sedentary behavior with active behavior.[31] Despite this knowledge and due in part to an increase in sedentary behaviors, children have 8 fewer hours of free play each week than they did 20 years ago.[32]
Several studies have examined the effects of adding height-adjustable standing desks to classrooms, which have reduced the time spent sitting. However, associating the reduction in sitting with health effects is challenging. In one study conducted on Australian school children, known as the Transform-Us! study, interventions reduced the amount of time children spent sitting in the classroom, which was associated with lower body mass index and waist circumference. The interventions used in the study included stand-up desks and easels, the use of timers, and sport and circus equipment in the classroom. Teachers also made lessons more active, and added breaks to lessons to promote active time.[7] In the US, another intervention for children is promoting the use of active transportation to and from school, such as through the Safe Routes to School program.[33]
History
Over the last hundred years, there has been a large shift from manual labor jobs (e.g. farming, manufacturing, building) to office jobs which is due to many contributing factors including globalization, outsourcing of jobs and technological advances (specifically internet and computers). In 1960, there was a decline of jobs requiring moderate physical activity from 50% to 20%, and one in two Americans had a physically demanding job, while in 2011 this ratio was one in five.[34] From 1990 to 2016, there was a decrease of about one third in manual labor jobs/employment.[35] In 2008, the United States American National Health Interview Survey found that 36% of adults were inactive, and 59% of adult respondents never participated in vigorous physical activity lasting more than 10 minutes per week.[36] According to a 2018 study, office based workers typically spend 70-85% sitting.[37] In the US population, prevalence of sitting watching television or videos at least 2 h/d was high in 2015-2016 (ranging from 59% to 65%); the estimated prevalence of computer use outside school or work for at least 1 h/d increased from 2001 to 2016 (from 43% to 56% for children, from 53% to 57% among adolescents, and from 29% to 50% for adults); and estimated total sitting time increased from 2007 to 2016 (from 7.0 to 8.2 h/d among adolescents and from 5.5 to 6.4 h/d among adults).[38]
See also
References
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- Teychenne M, Costigan SA, Parker K (June 2015). "The association between sedentary behaviour and risk of anxiety: a systematic review". BMC Public Health. 15: 513. doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1843-x. PMC 4474345. PMID 26088005.
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- Patterson R, McNamara E, Tainio M, de Sá TH, Smith AD, Sharp SJ, Edwards P, Woodcock J, Brage S, Wijndaele K (September 2018). "Sedentary behaviour and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis". European Journal of Epidemiology. 33 (9): 811–829. doi:10.1007/s10654-018-0380-1. PMC 6133005. PMID 29589226.
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- Daniel M. Landers. "The Influence of Exercise on Mental Health". President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
The research literature suggests that for many variables there is now ample evidence that a definite relationship exists between exercise and improved mental health. This is particularly evident in the case of a reduction of anxiety and depression.
- "Who Is At Risk for High Blood Pressure?". National Institutes of Health. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
- "Divorce, Heavy Drinking, Smoking Linked to Hair Loss". WebMD.
- Biswas, A; Oh, PI; Faulkner, GE; Bajaj, RR; Silver, MA; Mitchell, MS; Alter, DA (20 January 2015). "Sedentary time and its association with risk for disease incidence, mortality, and hospitalization in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis". Annals of Internal Medicine. 162 (2): 123–32. doi:10.7326/M14-1651. PMID 25599350. S2CID 7256176.
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- "Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Causes". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
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- "Exercise and Bone Health". National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- "Osteoporosis — Frequently Asked Questions". United States Department of Health and Human Services. 2009. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- Kraemer J (March 1995). "Natural course and prognosis of intervertebral disc diseases. International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine Seattle, Washington, June 1994". Spine. 20 (6): 635–9. doi:10.1097/00007632-199503150-00001. PMID 7604337.
- Commissaris, DA; Huysmans, MA; Mathiassen, SE; Srinivasan, D; Koppes, LL; Hendriksen, IJ (18 December 2015). "Interventions to reduce sedentary behavior and increase physical activity during productive work: a systematic review". Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 42 (3): 181–91. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3544. PMID 26683116.
- Shrestha, Nipun; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina T.; Verbeek, Jos H.; Ijaz, Sharea; Hermans, Veerle; Pedisic, Zeljko (2018). "Workplace interventions for reducing sitting at work". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 12: CD010912. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010912.pub5. ISSN 1469-493X. PMC 6517221. PMID 30556590.
- Piercy, Katrina L.; Troiano, Richard P.; Ballard, Rachel M.; Carlson, Susan A.; Fulton, Janet E.; Galuska, Deborah A.; George, Stephanie M.; Olson, Richard D. (2018-11-20). "The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans". JAMA. 320 (19): 2020–2028. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.14854. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 30418471. S2CID 53284249.
- "It's a Kid's Job". NIH News in Health. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
- "Safe Routes to School (SRTS)". CDC. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
- Parker-Pope, T. (2011). Less Active at Work, Americans Have Packed on Pounds.https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/less-active-at-work-americans-have-packed-on-pounds/
- The State of American Jobs (2016). http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/10/06/1-changes-in-the-american-workplace/
- Pleis, John R.; Lucas, Jacqueline W.; Ward, Brian W. (2008). "Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey" (PDF). Series Reports from the National Health Interview Survey #10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 11. Cite journal requires
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(help) - Edwardson C. L., Biddle S. J. H., Clarke-Cornwell A., Clemes S., Davies M. J., Dunstan D. W., Munir F. (2018). "A three arm cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the SMART Work & Life intervention for reducing daily sitting time in office workers: study protocol". BMC Public Health. 18 (1): 1120. doi:10.1186/s12889-018-6017-1. PMC 6137871. PMID 30217233.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Yang, Lin; Cao, Chao; Kantor, Elizabeth D.; Nguyen, Long H.; Zheng, Xiaobin; Park, Yikyung; Giovannucci, Edward L.; Matthews, Charles E.; Colditz, Graham A.; Cao, Yin (2019-04-23). "Trends in Sedentary Behavior Among the US Population, 2001-2016". JAMA. 321 (16): 1587–1597. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.3636. ISSN 0098-7484. PMC 6487546. PMID 31012934.
External links
Look up sedentary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Judson, Olivia (2010-02-23). "Stand Up While You Read This". Opinionator. New York Times.
- Gardner, Amanda (2010-07-27). "Study: The longer you sit, the shorter your life". Health Interactives. USA Today.
- Vlahos, James (2011-04-14). "Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?". Magazine. New York Times.