Study: Excessive Sitting May Raise Risk Of Death

HealthDay (3/26, Salamon) reports that a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that that "those who spend 11 or more hours a day sitting are 40 percent more likely to die over the next three years regardless of how physically active they are otherwise." According to HealthDay, "Australian researchers found that mortality risks spike after 11 hours of total daily sitting but are still 15 percent higher for those sitting between eight and 11 hours, compared to those sitting fewer than 4 hours per day." WebMD (3/26, Mann) quotes the researchers as saying in their study, "Our findings add to the mounting evidence that public health programs should focus not just on increasing population physical activity levels, but also on reducing sitting time." The article adds that "the study tracked nearly 222,500 Australian adults for about three years. During that time, people's odds of dying dovetailed with how much time they spent sitting."

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