The relationship between changes in sitting time and mortality in post-menopausal US women

Prolonged sitting is linked to various deleterious health outcomes. The alterability of the sitting time (ST)-health relationship is not fully established however and warrants study within populations susceptible to high ST.

We assessed the mortality rates of post-menopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) observational study, a 15-year prospective study of post-menopausal women aged 50-79 years, according to their change in ST between baseline and year six. A total of 77 801 participants had information at both times on which to be cross-classified into the following: (i) high ST at baseline and follow-up; (ii) low ST at baseline and follow-up; (iii) increased ST and (iv) decreased ST. Cox regression was used to assess the relationship between all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality with change in ST.

At the end of follow-up, there were 1855 deaths. Compared with high ST maintainers, low ST maintainers had a 51 and 48% lower risk of all-cause and cancer mortality, respectively. Reducing sitting also resulted in a protective rate of 29% for all-cause and 27% for cancer mortality.

These results highlight not only the benefit of maintaining minimal ST, but also the utility of decreasing ST in older women, if current levels are high.