Does Sitting Longer Shorten Life Expectancy?

Are we sitting longer/living shorter? Being sedentary has been shown to affect mental and physical well-being. Research now has drawn a link between being sedentary and living shorter.

Problems that a sedentary lifestyle has been linked to:

  • Musculoskeletal Pain
  • Cardiovascular Diseases
  • Metabolic Diseases
  • Obesity
  • Mortality
  • Depression

What Classifies as Sedentary Activities?

  • Sitting in cars
  • Watching Television
  • Sitting at Desks

A study done by The BJSM suggests that for each hour of continuous sitting life expectancy may be reduced as much as twenty two minutes. This reduced in life expectancy comes mainly in the form of cardiovascular diseases.

What they found was that; the average reduced life expectancy at birth translates to roughly a reduced life expectancy of 1.8 years in men and 1.5 in women.

As the average adult in Australia may spend up to 6 hours a day watching television, or computer screens, this could mean that the average adult could expect to life up to 4.8 years shorter.

Those who are spending massive amounts of time sedentary may have their life expectancy shortened by up to 10.4 years.

For more information contact Wayne Sun our physiotherapist at Perth Wellness Centre on (08) 9321 1964

Reference

VEERMAN JL, HEALY GN, COBIAC LJ, VOS T, WINKLER EA, OWEN N, & DUNSTAN DW. (2012). Television viewing time and reduced life expectancy: a life table analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 46, 927-30.