"Our findings support cutting back on sedentary time to reduce cardiovascular risk, with 10.6 hours a day marking a potentially key threshold tied to higher heart failure and cardiovascular mortality," stated Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-senior author of the study. "Too much sitting or lying down can be harmful for heart health, even for those who are active."
Guidelines currently recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week for heart health. However, researchers highlighted that these guidelines do not address sedentary behavior, which makes up a substantial part of daily activity. Evidence shows a direct link between prolonged inactivity and CVD risk.
The study analyzed data from 89,530 participants in the UK Biobank, with an average age of 62 and 56.4% being women. Participants wore wrist-worn triaxial accelerometers to track their movement over a week, reporting an average of 9.4 hours of sedentary time daily.
After an average follow-up period of eight years, data revealed that 4.9% of participants developed atrial fibrillation (AF), 2.1% developed heart failure (HF), 1.84% experienced myocardial infarction (MI), and 0.94% died from cardiovascular causes. While AF and MI risks rose steadily with increasing sedentary time, a significant "threshold" effect was observed for HF and CV mortality beyond 10.6 hours of daily inactivity.
Notably, those meeting the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity showed reduced AF and MI risks, yet higher risks for HF and CV mortality persisted with extended sedentary behavior.
"Future guidelines and public health efforts should stress the importance of cutting down on sedentary time," Khurshid noted. "Avoiding more than 10.6 hours per day may be a realistic minimal target for better heart health."
Dr. Charles Eaton from Brown University highlighted in an editorial that accelerometer data demonstrate self-reported exercise is often overestimated, while sedentary behavior is underestimated. Eaton suggested that replacing just 30 minutes of sitting with any physical activity can cut the risk of HF by 15% and CV mortality by 10%, with even light activity contributing to better outcomes.
"This study adds to the growing evidence of a strong link between sedentary behavior and cardiovascular health," said Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz, Editor-in-Chief of JACC. "The findings strongly suggest that we need to get people moving to promote better health."
Limitations noted in the study included a lack of data on the context of sitting, potential classification errors due to wrist-worn accelerometers, and possible confounding variables. Additional research with prolonged monitoring could provide more detailed insights into how reallocating sedentary time impacts heart health.
Research Report:Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Behavior and Risk of Future Cardiovascular Disease
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