Sitting for long periods not bad for health

A paper on the 'Associations of sitting behaviours with all-cause mortality over a 16-year follow-up: the Whitehall II study' was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, October 2015

Read the full length article here:

Key Finding

The study, followed more than 5000 participants for 16 years, making it one of the longest follow-up studies in this area of research, and found that sitting, either at home or at work, is not associated with an increased risk of dying.

"Our study overturns current thinking on the health risks of sitting and indicates that the problem lies in the absence of movement rather than the time spent sitting itself. Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing''

These findings challenge previous research suggesting that the act of sitting itself causes harm even when people routinely walk a lot or do other exercise.

Links to a sample of media releases

• Sitting down at work is no worse for you than standing up http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/13/sitting-down-at-work-is-no-worse-for-you-than-standing-up-study-claims
• Couch potatoes rejoice sitting long periods NOT bad for your health
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3269638/Couch-potatoes-rejoyce-Sitting-long-periods-NOT-bad-health-study-claim.html
• Can sitting really kill you? Maybe not if you get enough exercisehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-20/does-sitting-really-kill-you/6869778