Sitting too much? Study looks at sedentary time

Many people spend much of their day sitting. But how much is too much when it comes to their health? Can spending just a little less time sitting improve health and physical therapy’s impact on treating pain and mobility?

Yvonne Golightly, PhD, assistant dean for research in the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions, and a collaborative team from multiple universities want to find out.

“The population we are studying in North Carolina is mostly rural, so results of this study may be useful to rural Nebraskans, too,” Dr. Golightly said. “Results from this study will inform future sedentary time, and these programs would be implemented in Nebraska.”

Physical therapy is often prescribed for patients who have pain or mobility issues. But what about when these otherwise sedentary patients are not participating in their physical therapy exercises?

Or to put it another way, “How much sitting is too much for the other 99% of the day you are not exercising?” said Dr. Golightly’s collaborator, primary investigator Daniel White, ScD, of the University of Delaware.

Sedentary behavior means sitting, reclining or lying down and using very little energy. Having a mostly sedentary lifestyle is common in our current world, and, unfortunately, it is related to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and joint pain.

Dr. Golightly is a co-investigator on a R56 grant titled, “The longitudinal relationship of sedentary behavior with health outcomes in a community-based cohort: The Johnston County Health Study,” recently funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Golightly also is co-principal investigator of the Johnston County Health Study.

She is a physical therapist and an epidemiologist who provides her expertise in clinical care, chronic pain, physical activity, data analyses and public health.

“Results of this research will help us determine how much we need to reduce sedentary time (and replace it with light or moderate physical activity) to improve joint pain, mobility and quality of life,” said Dr. Golightly.

Participants will wear activity monitors, and analyses will examine how replacing sedentary time with physical activity affects their chronic joint pain, mobility and quality of life.

“We now have technology to very accurately measure sitting and other sedentary behaviors,” Dr. White said.

How much less sitting would make a real difference?

“We can now more precisely investigate this,” Dr. White said.

Investigators hope to eventually expand their research through online recruitment to include studying sitting in adults from across the U.S.

“We hope to include Nebraska in this future study,” Dr. White said.