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Posted on Aug 06, 2012, 6 a.m.
Nationwide (US) life expectancy would potentially be 2 years higher if adults reduced their time spent sitting to less than 3 hours a day and 1.38 years higher if they reduced television viewing to less than 2 hours a day.
Recently, a number of studies have suggested that sitting might be hazardous to your health, by promoting type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases – conditions correlated to sedentary behaviors. Peter Katzmarzyk, from Louisiana State University (Louisiana, USA), and colleagues completed a life table analysis to measure relative risks of all-cause mortality in association with sitting and television viewing, derived from a meta-analysis of studies looking at that relationship and from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data involving 166,738 subjects. The researchers found that limiting time watching television to less than 2 hours a day added 1.38 years of life, and cutting total sitting time to less than 3 hours a day increased life expectancy by 2 full years. They urge that: "Reducing sedentary behaviours such as sitting and television viewing may have the potential to increase life expectancy in the USA.”
Peter T Katzmarzyk, I-Min Lee. “Sedentary behaviour and life expectancy in the USA: a cause-deleted life table analysis.” BMJ Open 2012;2:4 e000828, 9 July 2012.
