Washington: You may want to avoid too much sitting down as a new research shows that each hour of sedentary time is associated with a 22 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The study by Julianne van der Berg, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and colleagues investigated cross-sectional associations of total duration and patterns of sedentary behaviour with glucose metabolism status and the metabolic syndrome.
The researchers used a wearable device that detects movement to show a strong link between sedentary lifestyles and the disease. Almost 2,500 volunteers, with an average age of 60, wore the accelerometer device strapped to their thighs for eight consecutive days.
Those with type 2 diabetes, 29 percent of the total, spent up to 26 more minutes per day in sedentary situations than participants with normal sugar metabolism. Every extra hour of sedentary time raised the risk of being diabetic by 22 percent.
The authors concluded that future studies in participants with type 2 diabetes should be conducted to confirm the results; nevertheless, the findings could have important implications for public health as they suggest that sedentary behaviour may play a significant role in the development and prevention of type 2 diabetes, independent of high-intensity physical activity. Consideration should be given to including strategies to reduce the amount of sedentary time in diabetes prevention programmes.
The study appears in Diabetologia.
