Spending less time sitting down can improve the metabolic health status of older adults, new research has indicated.
A recent study has found that older adults are less at risk of developing metabolic syndrome if they reduce the amount of time they spend engaging in sedentary behaviours, regardless of whether they exercise and eat a healthy diet.
Cardiovascular health can be strongly influenced by physical activity. International advice states that adults should complete more than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week.
Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of health problems that put you at risk of type 2 diabetes or conditions that affect your heart or blood vessels.
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Typically, older adults spend most of their day engaging in sedentary behaviours, putting them at risk of developing cardiometabolic abnormalities.
In the study, the research team looked at the health outcomes of 871 community-dwelling older adults from the NU-AGE study (the Northwestern University Aging Research Registry).
Accelerometers were used to examine each participant’s physical activity levels and time spent in sedentary behaviours.
On average, the participants spent 60% of their day being sedentary and 37% spent doing light-intensity physical activities. They only spent 3% of their waking hours doing moderate-to-vigorous physical activities.
The results have found that the participants who spent a shorter duration of time engaging in sedentary behaviours were less likely to develop metabolic syndrome compared to those who spent medium and longer times being sedentary.
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The authors said: “The study finds that physically inactive participants who spend less time in sedentary behaviour can achieve better metabolic health despite low levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
“Since less time in sedentary behaviour mainly translates into more time in lighter-intensity physical activity, this finding suggests that light-intensity physical activity — even below moderate intensity — may offer meaningful metabolic health benefits.”
They added: “This is particularly encouraging for older adults who may find it challenging to meet moderate-to-vigorous physical activity targets.”
Read the study in the The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.
