Prolonged Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Cause-Specific Mortality in a Large US Cohort

Abstract

The majority of leisure time is spent in sedentary behaviors such as television viewing. Studies have documented that prolonged leisure-time sitting is associated with higher risk of mortality-total, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and "all other causes"-but few have examined the "other" causes of death in detail. To examine associations of leisure-time sitting with risk of specific causes of death, we analyzed data from the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) Nutrition Cohort, a prospective US cohort including 127,554 men and women who were free of major chronic disease at study entry, and among whom 48,784 died during 21 years of follow-up (1993-2014; median follow-up, 20.3 years, interquartile range, 4.6 years). After multivariable adjustment, prolonged leisure-time sitting (≥6 vs. <3 hours per day) was associated with higher risk of mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease (including coronary heart disease and stroke-specific mortality), cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, suicide, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonitis due to solids and liquids, liver, peptic ulcer and other digestive disease, Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, nervous disorders, and musculoskeletal disorders. These findings provide additional evidence for associations between a broad range of mortality outcomes and prolonged sitting time. Given the pervasive nature of sitting in the contemporary lifestyle, this study further supports the recommendation that encouraging individuals to reduce sedentary time may provide health benefits.

Physical Activity, Sitting Time, and Risk of Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and Other Myeloid Malignancies

“…However, the CPS-II physical activity and sitting time items are very similar to the items validated in the Nurses' Health Study II (18). These measures have also been associated with various cancers in this cohort (19). Another limitation is the relatively small number of CML and AML cases.…”

Accounting for the Nutritional Context to Correctly Interpret Results from Studies of Exercise and Sedentary Behavior

“…In this context, inactivity is not just a lack of the positive effects of being physically active, strong research has shown that prolonged sitting results in negative consequences to health (risk for Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, etc.) with distinct mechanistic underpinnings [44,46,47]. Akin to the situation with adding exercise, however, subtracting movement to create a “sedentary” research condition cannot be separated from the energy balance context.…”

Energy Expenditure of a Single Sit-to-Stand Movement with Slow Versus Normal Speed Using the Different Frequency Accumulation Method

“…Prolonged unbroken sitting time (e.g., watching TV at home and work at the office) is related to the risk of various disease outcomes in healthy people, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality [1,2,3,4,5]. Performing physical activity including non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) [6] and increasing daily total energy expenditure (EE) have contributed significantly to health outcomes [7].…”