Prolonged Leisure-Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Cause-specific Mortality in a Large U.S. Cohort

Abstract

The majority of leisure-time is spent in sedentary behaviors such as television viewing. Studies have documented that prolonged leisure-time sitting is associated with higher risk of total, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and "all other causes" of mortality, but few have examined the "other" causes of death in detail. To examine associations of leisure-time sitting with risk of specific causes of death, data were analyzed from the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort, a prospective U.S. cohort including 127,554 men and women who were free of major chronic disease at study entry and among whom 48,784 died during 21 years of follow-up (1993-2014; median=20.3 years, IQR=4.6 years). After multivariable adjustment, prolonged leisure-time sitting (6+ vs <3 hours/day) was associated with higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease (including coronary heart disease and stroke-specific mortality), cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, suicide, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonitis due to solids and liquids, liver and other digestive disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, nervous disorders, and musculoskeletal disorders mortality. These findings provide additional evidence for associations between a broad range of mortality outcomes and prolonged sitting time. Given the pervasive nature of sitting in contemporary lifestyle, this study further supports that encouraging individuals to reduce sedentary time may provide health benefits.