It’s important to practice physical activityeven minimal, on a daily basis, so as not to be sedentary. Physical inactivity corresponds to the time spent immobile, sitting, or lying down, without making any movement leading to an expenditure of energy. It is the fourth leading cause of premature death in the world according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, 31% of the world’s population does not practice the recommended amount of physical activity to protect their health, according to recent estimates relayed by the WHO. Indeed, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) recommends in particular that those over 65 years of age exercise moderate intensity physical activity for at least 30 minutes per day, or high intensity activity for 15 minutes per day. This regular physical activity can be translated as traveling on footor even by climbing the stairs.
Sedentary lifestyle: women who sit for more than 11 hours a day have a 57% higher risk of death
A study published on February 27, 2024 in the Journal of the American Heart Association looked at the association between time spent sitting and risk of death, analyzing measurements of sitting position and daily activity over eight years of more than 6,000 women aged 63 to 99, collected by hip devices worn by the participants. This device is the first to be able to examine the total time spent sitting and the duration of sitting periods, in relation to the risk of death. Indeed, the researchers point out that sedentary lifestyle presents many health risksin particular because it reduces muscle contractions, blood circulation and glucose metabolism.
At the end of the study, the researchers observed that older women who sat more than 11 hours a day had a 57% increased risk of death from all causes and 78% of deaths by heart disease, compared to those who spent less than 9 hours in this position. “The risk begins to increase when you sit for around 11 hours a day, and the longer you sit in a single session”, explains in a press release, Andrea LaCroix, one of the authors of this work. Indeed, scientists have also found that the longer the periods of sitting without activity, the higher the risk.
Sedentary lifestyle among older women: negative effects that are not counteracted by sporting activity
Furthermore, the researchers noticed that physical exercise could not undo these negative effects. Indeed, according to them, older women have the same increased risk of death if they sit for long hours, whether they practice moderate to vigorous, low or high intensity physical activity. “If I do a brisk walk for an hour but sit for the rest of the day, I continue to accumulate all the negative effects on my metabolism“, explained Andrea LaCroix.
For the study scientists, these results should encourage health professionals to recommend limiting long periods of sitting and getting up at regular intervals, in order to not to be sedentary, but also to encourage simple activities for older women and to allow them to move. “Sitting all the time is not the way we’re supposed to be as humans, and we could reverse all of that culturally just by not being so drawn to all the things we do while sitting”, concludes Andrea LaCroix.
Sources :
- Prospective Associations of Accelerometer‐Measured Machine‐Learned Sedentary Behavior With Death Among Older Women: The OPACH Study – Journal of the American Heart Association – 27 février 2024
- Sedentary Behavior Increases Mortality Risk – UC San Diego – 28 février 2024
- Physical activity – World Health Organization
