New Study Says Your Sedentary Lifestyle Is Killing You

TOPLINE:

A less favorable balance between physical activity (PA) and sitting time (ST) is associated with a higher risk for all-cause mortality.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers evaluated the association between PA and ST with the risk for mortality in 5836 middle-aged and older Australian adults (mean age, 56.4 years; 45% men) from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study.
• The Physical Activity and Sitting Time Balance Index (PASTBI) was calculated by dividing the total duration of daily PA by the duration of daily ST.
• Participants were categorized into quartiles on the basis of their PASTBI score, ranging from low PA/high ST to high PA/low ST.
• The primary outcome was all-cause mortality.

TAKEAWAY:

• During a median follow-up time of 14.3 years, 885 (15%) all-cause deaths were reported.
• The risk for all-cause mortality was 47% higher in participants with lower engagement in PA and higher ST (low PASTBI) than those with higher engagement in PA and lower ST (high PASTBI; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.47; 95% confidence interval, 1.21-1.79).

IN PRACTICE:

“The utility of the PASTBI in identifying relationships with mortality risk further highlights the importance of achieving a healthier balance in the dual health behaviors of PA [physical activity] and ST [sitting time],” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Roslin Botlero, MBBS, MPH, PhD, of the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. It was published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

The study relied on self-reported data for PA and ST, which may have introduced recall or reporting bias. The generalizability of the findings is restricted to a specific set of self-reported questionnaires. Even after adjustment for several potential confounders, other unmeasured or unknown confounders may have influenced the association between PASTBI and all-cause mortality.

DISCLOSURES:

The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study was sponsored by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, and others. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.