Self-reported sitting time is not associated with incidence of cardiovascular disease in a population-based cohort of mid-aged women

Background: In Westernised societies adults are increasingly spending many hours each day in sedentary, low energy expenditure activities such as sitting. Although there is growing evidence on the relationship between television/screen time and increased cardiovascular disease mortality, very little is known about the association between total sitting time (in different domains) and cardiovascular disease incidence. We investigated this in a population-based cohort of mid-aged women in Australia.

Findings: Data were from 6154 participants in the 1946-51 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Survival analysis was used to determine the association between self-reported sitting time and cardiovascular disease incidence, determined through hospital diagnoses and cause of death data. During a mean (± SD) follow-up time of 9.9 ± 1.2 years, 177 cases of cardiovascular disease occurred. Mean sitting time (± SD) was 5.4 ± 2.6 hours a day. Sitting time was not associated with incident cardiovascular disease (adjusted hazard ratio 0.97, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.03). We found no interaction between physical activity and sitting time and cardiovascular disease.

Conclusions: In mid-aged women sitting time does not appear to be associated with cardiovascular disease incidence. These findings are contrary to expectations, given the growing evidence of a relationship between sitting time and cardiovascular disease mortality. Research in this area is scarce and additional studies are needed to confirm or refute these findings.