Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) November 2018 - Page 31

Rev. Medicina Desportiva informa, 2018, 9(6):29-30.
Mortality Benefits for
Replacing Sitting Time with
Different Physical Activities
Matthews, C. E. et al. Med Sci Spots Exerc, 47(9), set 2015.
Dr. Basil Ribeiro
Introduction
There are several studies that
associate physical activity and
the decrease of the incidence
of diseases, cardiovascular and
others, and also with the decreased
mortality associated with non-
transmissible diseases. So, it is not
a surprise the appeal to practice
physical exercise and sports in order
to get such benefits. The common
citizen is stimulated to do physical
exercise, moderate or high intensity,
three, five or as much as possible
days per week during a period of
time that can vary between 20-30
to 60 minutes. The problem become
solved and the other 23 hours of the
day could be spent resting, seated,
watching television or on the tablet.
However, this paradigm has to
change. It is stated by the authors
of this text that “recent studies
challenge de idea that only a few
hours per week of aerobic exercise
is enough to totally mitigate the
risks of mortality”, because “there
are high risks for health associated
with the excessive time spent in the
seated position, which replaces the
activities of daily life”. There has
been during the last years the con-
cept of spontaneous physical activ-
ity, referring to everything that is
done daily, like to walk to shopping,
to take the stairs or to vacuum the
house. It is highlighted the move-
ment throughout the day and the
minimization of the complete rest.
This study assumes that being
seated for long time is a risk factor
for early mortality but it is unknown
the advantage to replace the inactiv-
ity for physical exercise or for daily
activities. Of these, it is stretched
simple tasks, like cooking, shopping,
clean, but also other home tasks
with moderate or high intensity, like
vacuum, sweep, gardening or cut the
hedge. The authors refer in the intro-
duction of this study the hypoth-
esis of the replacement, where the
time being seated is replaced by the
time for physical activity, which is
associated to a decrease of the risk
of disease.
Association between physical activity,
sedentarism and cancer
Methods
In this study, approved by the
department for especial studies of
the National Cancer Institute (USA),
included 154614 eligible partici-
pants of the initial 318714, without
significant diseases, 59 to 82 years
old, that responded to two question-
naires. The questionnaire of physical
activity included questions to find
out the total time involved in 16
activities for the last 12 months. The
activities were divided in exercise
and sports (8 questions) and activi-
ties not related with exercise and, in
these, there were 5 questions related
to domestic activities, two about gar-
dening and mowing, and one related
to daily march. The duration of the
daily activity was the sum of all the
previous. There were three questions
about being seated, and it was asked
for how long that happened for the
last 12 months.
Results
During the period of follow-up of
6.8±1.0 years there were 7218 and
4983 of deaths, in men and women
respectively. Women referred more
global activity and of non-organized
exercise (2,70 vs 2,35 hours/day)
than men, but less time spent on
intentional exercise. On that physi-
cal activity, in men and in women,
the most frequent were domestic
activities /43%), followed by garden-
ing and mowing (15%) and daily
march (14%).
The persons less active (n=69606)
reported 1,15±0,50 h/day of global
physical activity, while the more
active (n=85008) reported 3,64±1,50
h/day. The time spent seated was
similar in men and in women:
7,3±3,4 h/day vs. 7,5±3,5 h/d, where
41% was to watch television, videos
or DVDs in men and in women and
about 25% while travelling by bus,
car or train.
The time spent seated was associ-
ated to a progressive increase on all-
cause mortality, cardiovascular or
others, but not to cancer. The Results
indicate that the greater amount of
Relationship between total sitting time and global mortality in
men 2
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