Deleterious associations of sitting time and television viewing time with cardiometabolic risk biomarkers: Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study 2004-2005.

Description

This study examined the associations of sitting time and TV viewing time to cardiometabolic risk markers in a large population-based sample of Australian adults. In both women (n=2761) and men (n=2103), sitting time was associated with waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, 2-h postload plasma glucose, and fasting insulin (all p<0.05). TV viewing time was also associated with all metabolic markers in women and with all metabolic variables in men with the exception of HDL cholesterol and blood pressure. However, sitting time was shown to be more consistently associated with metabolic markers than was TV viewing time in both men and women, after controlling for leisure time physical activity and waist circumference. These findings emphasize the importance of reducing sitting time across the entire day and not just during selected leisure time activities such as TV viewing.