Sedentary behavior as a risk factor for general health

There is much evidence suggesting that excessive sedentary behavior increases the risks of developing chronic ailments, such as cardiovascular diseases, and mortality. Many studies have also found links between sedentary behavior and high body mass index, metabolic syndromes, and increased waist circumference. However, several other studies have reported not finding such associations. The causes of these inconsistencies could be the indicators used for measuring sedentary behavior and the manner in which they are defined.

The conventional indicators of sedentary behavior are total sedentary time, average duration of sedentary bouts, and total number of sedentary bouts. In addition, researchers have recently begun to use minimum thresholds of 10 and 30 minutes to define what constitutes a sedentary bout. Unfortunately, it is not clear how valid and reliable these indicators are.

To shed light on this problem, we leveraged the power and ubiquitousness of smartphones to measure the sedentary behavioral patterns of 200 participants in a cross-sectional study. Using a motion logger app over a period of seven days, as well as questionnaires about daily activities every morning and evening, we gathered enough data to statically analyze and compare the different types of indicators of sedentary behavior.

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#04 Measuring the Measures of Sedentary Behavior: Are We Doing it Right?