A team of researchers has found that even the most sedentary people can mitigate the harmful effects of sitting for long periods, as long as they incorporate more steps into their daily lives.
Sedentary lifestyles are increasingly common and are associated with a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease, as well as an increased risk of cancer, diabetes and shorter life expectancy.
According to , these risks tend to be lower in people who take more steps daily and walk at a faster pace. However, the question remained as to whether individuals with high levels of sedentary lifestyle could compensate for these risks through daily physical activity.
Those who work in an office are not necessarily doomed to the negative effects of spending many hours sitting. Still, the researchers emphasize that it is still important to reduce, whenever possible, the time spent on sedentary behavior.
Num, published in 2024 in British Journal of Sports Medicineresearchers analyzed data from 72,174 volunteers from the UK Biobank, a database that tracks health indicators for thousands of people over several years.
On average, 6.9 years of health data were analyzed per participant. For seven days, volunteers used pulse accelerometers during to measure your physical activity levels, including the number of daily steps and time spent sitting.
The median time of sedentary behavior was 10.6 hours per day. Participants who remained sitting for longer than this value were classified as having a high level of sedentary time, while those who spent less time sitting were considered to have a low level of sedentary lifestyle.
The researchers excluded from analysis participants whose data from the first two years could have been influenced by health problems. Thus, the conclusions only apply to people who were generally healthy during this period. It is unclear whether the sample included participants with disabilities that could affect step counts.
The team concluded that between 9,000 and 10,000 steps per day represent the ideal range to counteract a highly sedentary lifestyle. At this level of activity, there was a 21% reduction in the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and a 39% reduction in the risk of mortality.
Regardless of time spent sitting, researchers also found that about half of the health benefits were beginning to emerge from sitting. 4000 to 4500 steps daily.
“Any number of steps above the 2200 daily reference steps was associated with a lower mortality and to one lower risk of incidence of cardiovascular diseases, both in people with low levels of sedentary lifestyle and in those with high levels”, concluded the researchers.
