All rise! Sitting kills 433,000 people every year

About 1,200 people die daily worldwide because of sitting for more than three hours a day. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The study showed that more than 60 per cent of people spent more than three hours a day sitting, with adults averaging 4.7 hours.
  • Every hour added to more than seven sitting hours a day increases the risk of death by five per cent even after one adjusts from moderate to vigorous physical activity.
  • The deaths were highest in Lebanon (11.6 per cent), the Netherlands (7.6 per cent) and Denmark (6.9 per cent), while the lowest rates were in Mexico (0.6 per cent), Myanmar (1.3 per cent) and Bhutan (1.6 per cent).

About 1,200 people die daily worldwide because of sitting for more than three hours a day, a study has shown.

Although it is an intrinsic part of nature, nearly 433,000 deaths are recorded every year due to longer sitting hours. The fatalities account for about 3.8 per cent of the global annual deaths due to inactivity.

Death by long sitting hours is due to an imbalance between the production and breakdown of a type of unstable molecule in the body, which may cause cell death.

Excessive sitting is also linked to stiffening of heart vessels, hypertension and diabetic vascular disease.

This is according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine titled: “All-Cause Mortality Attributable to Sitting Time”, which estimated the proportion of deaths attributable to the “chair effect” in 54 countries, using data from 2002 to 2011.

About 1.16 billion people aged 40 to 79 were sampled.

The study showed that more than 60 per cent of people spent more than three hours a day sitting, with adults averaging 4.7 hours.

Every hour added to more than seven sitting hours a day increases the risk of death by five per cent even after one adjusts from moderate to vigorous physical activity.

The deaths were highest in Lebanon (11.6 per cent), the Netherlands (7.6 per cent) and Denmark (6.9 per cent), while the lowest rates were in Mexico (0.6 per cent), Myanmar (1.3 per cent) and Bhutan (1.6 per cent).

AT LEAST TWO HOURS SITTING

A Kenyan, on average, spends at least two hours sitting with little physical activity, according to the 2015 Kenya STEPwise Non-Communicable Disease Survey.

Those in large urban areas such as Nairobi spend nearly two hours in traffic to or from work.

When at their workplace or homes, they are likely to be sitting while working or resting.

The same can be said for matatu drivers, who spend many hours sitting behind the wheel for months or even years.

Coincidentally, the study notes, the excessive amount of time we spend sitting may increase the risk of death, regardless of whether we exercise or not.

The lead author of the study, Mr Leandro Rezende, said reducing the amount of time we sit “could increase life expectancy by 0.20 years in those countries analysed.

“It is important to minimise sedentary behaviour in order to prevent premature deaths,” he said.

The study recommends that people increase more physical activity and sit less. It says if we reduce the amount of time we sit by about two hours, it would mean a 2.3 per cent decrease in mortality.

Even a more modest reduction in sitting time — by 10 per cent or half an hour per day — could be sufficient in reducing deaths.