Are you sitting comfortably? Then it may be shortening your life

Restricting the amount of time spent sitting down each day to less than three hours could boost the life expectancy of adults by as much as two years, research has found.

Cutting the hours spent watching TV to fewer than two a day could also extend life by nearly 1.4 years, according to the study carried out in the US and published in online medical journal BMJ Open.

Researchers found evidence that adults spend an average of 55 per cent of their day sitting down. Several previous studies have linked extended periods spent sitting and/or watching TV to poor health and death from heart disease or stroke.

In this latest study, researchers used data collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which regularly studies a large representative sample of the population on various aspects of their health and lifestyle.

The authors say their analysis, which also takes other published research into account, assumes a causal association rather than proving that there is one. The researchers said further studies will be needed before recommendations on safe levels of sedentary behaviour can be made.

Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Met University and director of MoreLife weight programmes for adults and children, says it’s known that we adults in developed nations are more sedentary than ever, largely thanks to technology. For many adults the problem is exacerbated by the fact that they have sedentary jobs, even eating lunch at the desk

“The reality is that there is a group who are healthy because, although they sit all day at a desk, they then go out on a bike, or walk or play tennis after work and at weekends,” says Prof Gately. “In other words they do enough to mitigate sitting down all day. But there’s a sizeable number who are not physically active outside work and they are a worry because they can go home and spend the whole evening sitting about as well. Human beings were not built to sit or lie around – we were designed to go hunting for food and to work hard physically to survive.”

Gately believes that employers have an important part to play in encouraging employees to be physically active during the working day, no matter what the nature of their job. If a reason is needed beyond encouraging better wellbeing among the workforce for its own sake, then it comes from research done by Leeds Met which proves that fitter and trimmer workers are more productive.

“I really think it should be part of an employer’s health and safety responsibility to promote physical activity in the workplace, whether leaving the building and going for a walk or some other lunchtime activity, or simply walking about more during the day, including maybe during meetings,” says the professor. “More companies all the time in the US are recognising how the issues of inactivity and obesity are costing them money. The average obese person takes 18 days off a year from conditions that include back pain, heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety and stress. And when at work they are not as productive.

“I believe the government needs to nudge employers into telling staff that it’s healthy to be active, therefore removing the stigma about leaving the desk that exists in may workplaces. If companies do this they’d start to see the benefits very quickly.”

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