Just 25 minutes of daily exercise enough to cut death risk from prolonged sitting, scientists say

Longer durations of daily physical activity are linked to an even lower risk, researchers say

Working out for just about 20-25 minutes daily may be enough to cut a heightened risk of death due to a highly sedentary lifestyle, a new study finds.

Adults in developed countries spend about 9-10 hours on average every day sitting down mostly while working, with the highly sedentary lifestyle linked to a heightened risk of death.

The research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found just about 25 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) eliminates the risk of high sedentary time.

Individual data from four groups of people, who were fitted with activity trackers, was pooled for the latest study by scientists, including those from The Arctic University of Norway.

Researchers sought to find out whether physical activity might modify the association between sedentary time and death, and what amount of physical activity and sitting time may influence the risk.

The analysis included data from nearly 12,000 people aged at least 50, who had a minimum of 4 days of 10 daily hours of activity tracker records.

The participants had been monitored for at least two years, and had provided details of potentially influential factors, including their sex, educational level, weight, height, smoking history, alcohol intake and whether they had current and/or previous cardiovascular disease, cancer and/or diabetes.

About 5,950 people spent fewer than 10.5 hours sitting down every day, while 6,042 clocked up 10.5 or more sedentary hours.

Data from death registries found that during an average period of five years, 805 (7 per cent) people died, 357 (6 per cent) of whom spent under 10.5 hours sitting down every day and 448 of whom clocked up 10.5 hours or more.

Being sedentary for more than 12 hours a day was found to be associated with a 38 per cent heightened risk of death compared with a daily tally of eight hours.

But this was only among those registering fewer than 22 daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, scientists said.

The study found over 22 daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity was linked with a lower risk of death.

Higher daily tallies of physical activity were found to be linked to an even lower risk irrespective of the amount of time spent seated every day.

For instance, an extra 10 minutes a day of exercise was linked to a 15 per cent lower risk of death in those spending fewer than 10.5 sedentary hours.

This extended duration of workouts was associated with a 35 per cent lower risk among those spending more than 10.5 sedentary hours every day.

Citing the study’s main limitation, scientists said the research was observational and can’t establish cause and effect.

The study could also not account for other potentially influential factors like diet, mobility issues and general health.

However, scientists said small amounts of MVPA “may be an effective strategy to ameliorate the mortality risk from high sedentary time”.