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 Researchers found that every hour people 60 years
old and older spent sitting daily was tied to a 46 percent increased
risk of being disabled — even if they also exercised regularly.
"It was its own separate risk factor," Dorothy Dunlop told Reuters
Health.
Dunlop is the study's lead author from the Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
"We know that being active is good for your health and we know a
sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health," she said. But few
studies have examined whether moderate to vigorous physical activity
offsets the possible negative effects of being sedentary.
Dunlop and her colleagues write in the Journal of Physical Activity
and Health that Americans already lead sedentary lifestyles.
Among older Americans disability is also a major concern because it
has been linked to increased medical spending and a higher risk of
going into a nursing home or other care facility.
If future studies can confirm that sedentary behavior causes
disability, which this study does not, then older people may
possibly avoid becoming disabled by being more active throughout the
day.
For the new report, Dunlop and her colleagues analyzed data
collected in 2003 through 2006 as part of a long-term government
study of American health.
The researchers used information on 2,286 adults who were 60 years
old or older, had worn a device that measures physical activity for
at least four days and had a physical exam.
Participants were considered to have a disability if they couldn't
perform a self-care task, such as getting dressed, by themselves.
Survey participants spent about 14 hours awake each day, on average.
Of that, an average of nine hours was spent sitting or otherwise not
moving.
After taking into account the amount of time people spent doing
moderate to vigorous physical activity, their age, their health and
whether they were well-off, the researchers found that each hour of
daily sitting was linked to a 46 percent increased risk of having a
disability.
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The study can't say whether a sedentary lifestyle leads to
disability or if having a disability leads to a sedentary lifestyle,
however.
In addition, the authors note that their records of physical
activity may not take into account some forms of exercise, because
the devices that participants wore may not pick up upper body
movement or cycling. Participants also didn't wear the devices while
swimming.
Stephen Kritchevsky told Reuters Health it's too early to tell if
interventions that get people moving during the day will prevent
disability, but they couldn't hurt because other studies suggest
activity improves functioning.
He heads the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest Baptist
Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and wasn't involved
in the new research.
"The fact that people are physically limited in some way is even a
bigger reason to try and do things, because there is plenty of
research that shows that's likely to improve function," Kritchevsky
said.
Dunlop said older adults should be as physically active as possible.
They should also know that being sedentary is possibly bad for their
health.
"The goal here is to accumulate more light activities to replace the
sitting and keep going on the moderate activity that you're already
engaged in," she said.
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Source: http://bit.ly/1eNaJ4A
Journal of Physical Activity and Health, online Feb. 19, 2014.
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