Dr. Travis Saunders has authored a paper, “Prolonged sitting and markers of cardiometabolic disease risk in children and youth: A randomized crossover study,” that was recently published in Metabolism. Other authors on the paper include HALO researchers Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, Dr. Gary Goldfield, Dr. Rachel Colley and Dr. Mark Tremblay. Citation details are below along with a summary of the paper.
Saunders TJ, Chaput JP, Goldfield GS, Colley RC, Kenny GP, Doucet E, Tremblay MS. Prolonged sitting and markers of cardiometabolic disease risk in children and youth: A randomized crossover study. Metabolism. 2013 Oct;62(10):1423-8. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2013.05.010. Epub 2013 Jun 15.
ABSTRACT: Objective. Recent evidence suggests that short bouts of uninterrupted sedentary behavior reduce insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance while increasing triglyceride levels in both healthy and overweight/obese adults. To date no study has examined the acute impact of uninterrupted sitting in children and youth. The objective of the present study was to determine whether 8h of uninterrupted sitting increases markers of cardiometabolic disease risk in healthy children and youth, in comparison to 8h of sitting interrupted by light intensity walk breaks or structured physical activity. Materials/Methods. 11 healthy males and 8 healthy females between the ages of 10 and 14years experienced 3 conditions in random order: (1) 8h of uninterrupted sitting (Sedentary); (2) 8h of sitting interrupted with a 2-min light-intensity walk break every 20min (Breaks); and (3) 8h of sitting interrupted with a 2-min light-intensity walk break every 20min as well as 2×20min of moderate-intensity physical activity (Breaks+Physical Activity). Insulin, glucose, triglyceride, HDL and LDL cholesterol area under the curve were calculated for each condition. Results. We observed no significant differences in the area under the curve for any marker of cardiometabolic disease risk across the 3 study conditions (all p>0.09). Conclusions. These results suggest that in comparison to interrupted sitting or structured physical activity, a single bout of 8h of uninterrupted sitting does not result in measurable changes in circulating levels of insulin, glucose, or lipids in healthy children and youth.
