Sedentary behaviour and health: mapping environmental and social contexts to underpin chronic disease prevention

Abstract

The time that children and adults spend sedentary-put simply, doing too much sitting as distinct from doing too little physical activity-has recently been proposed as a population-wide, ubiquitous influence on health outcomes. It has been argued that sedentary time is likely to be additional to the risks associated with insufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. New evidence identifies relationships of too much sitting with overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and other adverse health outcomes. There is a need for a broader base of evidence on the likely health benefits of changing the relevant sedentary behaviours, particularly gathering ev..