Sedentary behaviour is any waking activity that uses very little energy, such as sitting or lying down. Around one in three adults don’t get enough physical activity and spend long parts of the day sedentary. Long periods of sedentary behaviour have been linked to several chronic diseases, but it hasn’t been clear whether taking more steps each day can reduce these risks.
With more people using wearable devices like Fitbits, information such as daily step count and sedentary time is already being collected. This month’s Tap into Research looks at a study that explored how sedentary behaviour and step count relate to the development of 12 chronic conditions.
Participants in this study were part of the All of Us research program. They had previously shared Fitbit data, either from their own device or one provided by the study, which was then linked to their health data.
Researchers used the health data to see whether participants developed one of the following 12 chronic conditions: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, kidney disease, liver disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, major depressive disorder, and sleep apnea.
The study included 15,327 adults. It found that:
- Spending more time sedentary each day was associated with a higher risk of 11 out of the 12 chronic conditions.
- Taking more steps in a day was associated with a lower risk of all 12 conditions.
The number of steps needed to offset the extra risk from higher sedentary time varied by how long someone was sedentary per day and the specific chronic conditions. For example:
- Compared with people who were sedentary for 8 hours a day, those who were sedentary for 14 hours needed an extra 5,300 steps per day to offset the higher risk of diabetes. For obesity, the same increase in sedentary time required only an extra 1,700 steps.
- For heart failure and coronary artery disease, even very high step counts did not reduce the added risk from 14 hours of sedentary time. This suggests that sometimes large amounts of sedentary time might not be reversible with more steps.
Understanding the link between step count, sedentary time, and the onset of chronic diseases could help shape clearer public health recommendations. Instead of focusing only on daily steps, guidance could also include recommended limits on sedentary time. This could lead to more personalised, evidence based advice based on people’s daily activity patterns and their risk of chronic disease.
Read the paper: Daily steps offset risks of sedentary behavior in the All of Us research program
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