Sitting for more than 8 hours daily increases the risk of death and major cardiovascular event such as myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure or cardiovascular death in comparison to those who sit for less than 4 hours per day, according to a new study reported in JAMA Cardiology.¹

In this study, researchers enrolled 105,677participants from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology study, aged 35-70 years, from 21 high-income, middle-income and low-income countries with the aim to examine the association of daily sitting time with heart disease and mortality. Nearly 60% of the participants were women; mean age was 50.4 years. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to assess the daily sitting time.

A total of 5696 major cardiovascular events were recorded over the follow-up (median) period of 11.1 years, which included 2966 strokes, 2349 myocardial infarctions, 671 heart failure and 1792 cardiovascular deaths. There were 6233 deaths.

The risk of all-cause mortality and major cardiovascular disease was elevated in participants who reported sitting time of ≥8 hours per day than those with sitting time of less than 4 hours daily with hazard ratio of 1.20 for all-cause mortality and 1.21 for major cardiovascular disease. This association of sitting time of ≥8 hours per day with the composite outcome of all-cause mortality and major CVD was particularly robust in the lower-middle–income and low-income countries when compared with upper-middle–income and high-income countries with HRs of 1.29 and 1.08 respectively.

The probability of occurrence of composite of all-cause mortality and major cardiovascular disease was up to 50% higher among those with sedentary time of more than 8 hours daily and were least active. Increase in physical activity was seen to lower this risk. The risk was markedly reduced (17%) among participants with longer sitting times, but had high levels of physical activity.

This study has shown that mortality risk as well as risk of cardiovascular diseases is higher in those with longer sitting time. This was particularly seen in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Sitting and physical inactivity accounted for almost 9% of all deaths. Therefore, reducing the daily sitting time and increasing physical activity may lower the global burden of cardiovascular diseases and early deaths.

The mantra should be to move, move and move….every day and as much as possible.

Reference

1. Li S, et al. Association of sitting time with mortality and cardiovascular events in High-Income, Middle-Income, and Low-Income Countries. JAMA Cardiol. 2022 Jun 15. doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2022.1581.