The Exergame Network (TEN) Blog

7-28-10: 7-28-10: Check this quote out: “The time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level.”

This was from a new American Cancer Society study, titled Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults. (I put more details of the article and study below for those who want the reference) What does this study suggest? Two things:

1. We still need to promote the 2008 physical activity recommendation of 150 mins. of moderate physical activity per week.

2. We need to start focusing on reducing the amount of time we spend being a couch potato the other 23.5 hours in the day!

How does this help the exergaming cause? Well for starters, most of our research focus has been on showing how exergaming can meet objective #1. Games like wii Boxing and Xavix Jackie Chan Run and certain songs of iDance can definitely get one up to the moderate (4-6 MET) range.

Even though we have been showing this, most of the criticism towards exergaming is still focused on how it isn't "enough" to reach the moderate level of "exercise". Well now with this study, we can say that the OTHER exergames that fall below the "moderate" level can help to address this second objective! It seems that this is turning out to be a much bigger risk factor than was first thought.

So casual exergames can make a big dent reducing the negative effects of "hypokinetic disease", and if you read the study, this could be even bigger than getting people to do their 30 mins. of moderate exercise Rx 5x/wk!

Another study to support the use of exergames in getting couch potatoes all over the world moving!

Dr. Ernie Medina, Exergaming Evangelist, ernie@medplaytech.com
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Public release date: 22-Jul-2010

Contact: David Sampson
david.sampson@cancer.org
American Cancer Society

Study links more time spent sitting to higher risk of death

Risk found to be independent of physical activity level

A new study from American Cancer Society researchers finds it's not just how much physical activity you get, but how much time you spend sitting that can affect your risk of death. Researchers say time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level. They conclude that public health messages should promote both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting. The study appears early online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Increasing obesity levels in the United States are widely predicted to have major public health consequences. A growing epidemic of overweight and obesity has been attributed in part to reduced overall physical activity. And while several studies support a link between sitting time and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk factors (11, 16, 17), and unhealthy dietary patterns in children and adults (18-20), very few studies have examined time spent sitting in relation to total mortality (21-23). Thus, public health guidelines focus largely on increasing physical activity with little or no reference to reducing time spent sitting.

To explore the association between sitting time and mortality, researchers led by Alpa Patel, Ph.D. analyzed survey responses from 123,216 individuals (53,440 men and 69,776 women) who had no history of cancer, heart attack, stroke, or emphysema/other lung disease enrolled in the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention II study in 1992. They examined the amount of time spent sitting and physical activity in relation to mortality between 1993 and 2006. They found that more leisure time spent sitting was associated with higher risk of mortality, particularly in women. Women who reported more than six hours per day of sitting were 37 percent more likely to die during the time period studied than those who sat fewer than 3 hours a day. Men who sat more than 6 hours a day were 18 percent more likely to die than those who sat fewer than 3 hours per day. The association remained virtually unchanged after adjusting for physical activity level. Associations were stronger for cardiovascular disease mortality than for cancer mortality.

When combined with a lack of physical activity, the association was even stronger. Women and men who both sat more and were less physically were 94% and 48% more likely, respectively, to die compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active.

"Several factors could explain the positive association between time spent sitting and higher all-cause death rates," said Dr. Patel. "Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases."

The authors conclude that "public health messages and guidelines should be refined to include reducing time spent sitting in addition to promoting physical activity. Because a sizeable fraction of the population spends much of their time sitting, it is beneficial to encourage sedentary individuals to stand up and walk around as well as to reach optimal levels of physical activity."

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Article: "Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults." Alpa V. Patel, Leslie Bernstein, Anusila Deka, Heather Spencer Feigelson, Peter T. Campbell, 5 Susan M. Gapstur, Graham A. Colditz, and Michael J. Thun. Am J Epid Published online July 22, 2010 (DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwq155).

Link to abstract: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kwq155
Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults

Alpa V. Patel*, Leslie Bernstein, Anusila Deka, Heather Spencer Feigelson, Peter T. Campbell, Susan M. Gapstur, Graham A. Colditz and Michael J. Thun

* Correspondence to Dr. Alpa V. Patel, Epidemiology Research Program, American Cancer Society, 250 Williams Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303 (e-mail: alpa.patel@cancer.org ).

Received for publication January 7, 2010. Accepted for publication April 29, 2010.

The obesity epidemic is attributed in part to reduced physical activity. Evidence supports that reducing time spent sitting, regardless of activity, may improve the metabolic consequences of obesity. Analyses were conducted in a large prospective study of US adults enrolled by the American Cancer Society to examine leisure time spent sitting and physical activity in relation to mortality. Time spent sitting and physical activity were queried by questionnaire on 53,440 men and 69,776 women who were disease free at enrollment. The authors identified 11,307 deaths in men and 7,923 deaths in women during the 14-year follow-up. After adjustment for smoking, body mass index, and other factors, time spent sitting (≥6 vs. <3 hours/day) was associated with mortality in both women (relative risk = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 1.44) and men (relative risk = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.24). Relative risks for sitting (≥6 hours/day) and physical activity (<24.5 metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/week) combined were 1.94 (95% CI: 1.70, 2.20) for women and 1.48 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.65) for men, compared with those with the least time sitting and most activity. Associations were strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality. The time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level. Public health messages should include both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting.

mortality; motor activity; prospective studies; sedentary lifestyle

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; CPS-II, Cancer Prevention Study II; ICD, International Classification of Diseases; MET, metabolic equivalent