Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 67, October 2014, Pages 335-339
Preventive Medicine

Distinct associations of different sedentary behaviors with health-related attributes among older adults

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.08.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Factor analysis identified two different types of leisure-time sedentary behaviors.

  • Passive sedentary time includes TV, listening or talking, and sitting around time.

  • Mentally-active sedentary time includes computer-use and reading time.

  • These two types of sedentary time were differently associated with health indices.

  • Two types of sedentary time may play different roles in older adults' well-being.

Abstract

Objective

Leisure-time sedentary behaviors (LTSBs) have been associated adversely with health outcomes. However, limited research has focused on different categories of LTSB. We aimed at identifying categories of LTSBs and examining their separate associations with indices of health among Japanese older adults.

Methods

A postal survey collected data on self-reported health, psychological distress, body mass index, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), LTSBs (five behaviors) and socio-demographic characteristics from 1,580 Japanese older adults (67% response rate; 65–74 years) in 2010. Exploratory factor analysis was used to classify LTSBs. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for associations of LTSB categories with self-reported health, psychological distress, overweight, and lower MVPA. Data were analyzed in 2013.

Results

Two categories of LTSB: passive sedentary time (consisting of TV time, listening or talking while sitting, and sitting around) and mentally-active sedentary time (consisting of computer-use and reading books or newspapers) were identified. Higher passive sedentary time was associated with a higher odds of being overweight (OR: 1.39, [95% CI: 1.08–1.80]), and lower MVPA (1.26, [1.02–1.54]). Higher mentally-active sedentary time was associated with lower odds of lower MVPA (0.70, [0.57–0.86]).

Conclusions

Two types of sedentary time—passive and mentally-active—may play different roles in older adults' well-being.

Introduction

Sedentary behaviors, which are distinct from lack of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), are associated with increased cardio-metabolic risk (Owen et al., 2010). Studies have shown relationships between higher sitting time and indices of poorer health in general adult samples (Hamilton et al., 2007). Furthermore this relationship has been observed among older adult samples (Gardiner et al., 2011, Inoue et al., 2012). Decreasing sedentary behavior, in addition to increasing physical activity, is now considered an important strategy to reduce health risk (Hamilton et al., 2008, Owen et al., 2011).

In assessing sedentary behaviors, many studies have used measures of television viewing (TV) and other screen time. TV viewing is a predominant sedentary behavior during leisure time (Sugiyama et al., 2008) and higher TV time has been consistently associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Jakes et al., 2003), atherosclerosis (Kronenberg et al., 2000), the metabolic syndrome (Chang et al., 2008, Dunstan et al., 2005), and poor mental health (Hamer et al., 2010). Screen time can include watching TV, computer use, or video game playing. Higher screen time also shows significant associations with all-cause mortality (Ford, 2012), CVD events (Stamatakis et al., 2011, Warren et al., 2010), and obesity (Vandelanotte et al., 2009).

However, recent studies found that specific sedentary behaviors can be differently associated with MVPA and with indices of poorer health. A systematic review has shown that the associations of MVPA with sedentary time differ between TV viewing and computer use (Rhodes et al., 2012). In a study of 3,305 Singaporean adults, higher risk of cardio-metabolic diseases was associated with higher TV time, but not with computer-use and reading time (Nang et al., 2013). In a longitudinal study of 2,597 French older adults, increases in time spent using computers were associated with better cognitive performance (Kesse-Guyot et al., 2012). These findings suggest that all sedentary behaviors may not be similarly associated with health risk. Yet, limited research has examined how sedentary behaviors may be categorized into groups, and how categories of sedentary behaviors might be associated with MVPA or aspects of health and well-being. Understanding how different types of sedentary behaviors are related to health is particularly relevant to older adults, who tend to spend longer time sitting and who have greater availability of leisure time after retirement (Clark et al., 2010).

The aim was to identify categories of leisure time sedentary behaviors (LTSBs), and to examine their separate associations with indices of health and well-being among community-dwelling Japanese older adults.

Section snippets

Participants and data collection

Detailed sampling procedures were described in elsewhere (Inoue et al., 2012). Briefly, this population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in three Japanese municipalities; Bunkyo Ward in Tokyo, Fuchu City in Tokyo, and Oyama Town in Shizuoka Prefecture. Older adults aged between 65 and 74 years old were randomly selected from the registry of residential addresses of each municipality, which were stratified by gender and age (65–69 years and 70–74 years).

In total, 2,700 community-living

Results

Table 1 shows the characteristics of participants. The sample consisted of 52% men, and the mean age of participants was 69.5 years. About the same number of participants from each of the three municipalities participated in the study.

Factor analysis extracted two factors of LTSBs: one consisting of TV (factor loading: 0.45), sitting around (0.38), and listening or talking while sitting (0.30); and, the other consisting of computer use (0.37) and reading books or newspapers (0.31). The former

Discussion

This study identified two different types of leisure-time sedentary behaviors: one is passive activity including watching TV, talking and just sitting; the other is mentally active, involving reading or using computer. Passive and mentally-active sedentary times were differently associated with MVPA and health indices among community-dwelling Japanese older adults. Higher passive sedentary time, the majority of which was spent watching TV, was associated with a higher likelihood of being

Conclusions

Passive and mentally-active sedentary time may play different roles in the physical and mental well-being of older adults. This findings suggest that passive sedentary behaviors (including TV viewing time), rather than total sedentary time, might have to be targeted in interventions for maintaining and enhancing older adults' health. Future studies need to focus not only on overall sitting time, but also types of sedentary behavior in examining the health impact of sitting. Research seeking to

Disclosure of funding

This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B): 25282209 from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science and Technology. Owen is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Program Grant (#569940), a Senior Principal Research Fellowship (1003960) and by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support program.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B): 25282209 from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science and Technology. Sugiyama is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Program funding (#569940). Owen is supported by NHMRC Program Grant (#569940) and a Senior Principal Research Fellowship (1003960). Sugiyama and Owen are supported by the Victorian Government's OIS Program. All authors have no other

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