Chijioke Iremeka
Reducing sitting time by as little as 30 minutes per day can lower blood pressure, improve older people’s cardiovascular health and cut down chances of coming down with non-communicable disease, physicians say.
According to them, a reduction in sitting time is comparable to increasing physical activity and lowering blood pressure.
The experts noted that older adults typically sit 60 per cent to 80 per cent of their awake time, which is detrimental to their well-being.
They were speaking against the background of a new study by Kaiser Permanente, an American integrated managed care consortium, based in the United States, which stated that ‘decreasing sitting time by as little as 30 minutes daily can lower blood pressure’.
Titled, ‘Sitting Time Reduction and Blood Pressure in Older Adults: A Randomised Clinical Trial’ and published in a medical journal, JAMA Network Open, the study indicated that sitting less could reduce blood pressure in older adults.
According to the preliminary research, the study was a randomised clinical trial to examine the effectiveness of sitting reduction for improving cardiovascular health.
The author stated, “In this study of a 6-month sitting reduction intervention, older adults in the intervention reduced sedentary time by more than 30 minutes per day and reduced systolic blood pressure.
“Sitting reduction could be a promising approach to improve health in older adults,” the study concluded.
Speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise, a Professor of Public Health at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara State, Tanimola Akande, said decreasing sitting time can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
He listed hypertension among cardiovascular diseases and said active ageing prevents a sedentary lifestyle and improves older people’s health.
“There is what is called active ageing, which is an initiative that aims to engage, inspire and enable people to be active, healthy and happy in later life,” the physician added.
Akande noted that active ageing builds on existing provisions and develops new activities to encourage people aged 55 and above to become and stay active.
According to him, active ageing is a concept deployed by the European Commission, and the World Health Organisation and is used also in Human Resource Management.
This concept, he further explained, evokes the idea of longer activity, with a higher retirement age and working practices adapted to the age of the employee.
Corroborating findings from the study, a Public Health Physician and Medical Director, Federal College of Education, Akoka Medical Centre, Lagos, Dr Rotimi Adesanya, said being active reduces chances of coming down with diseases.
He said, “It is true. Several healthy lifestyles bring about a reduction in blood pressure. Lifestyles like walking, exercise, reduction in alcohol intake, quitting smoking, and avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, among others help in the reduction of HBP in humans, especially in older persons.
“They help in preventing high blood pressure. It has to be combined with other healthy lifestyles mentioned above to have a marked improvement.
“People with confirmed high blood pressure (Hypertension) should, however, use their medications combined with these other lifestyle measures,” Adesanya advised.
Buttressing the point, in a study by Paddy Dempsey et al published in America Heart Association Journal, titled, ‘Sitting Less and Moving More,’ the authors said that a reduction in sitting time per day improves older people’s vascular health.
He said with the challenges of many finding it difficult to adhere to structured exercise guidelines, it is appropriate to advise ‘move more, sit less, more often’ to improve BP control.
According to the study, such advice should continue to be viewed as complementary in the context of other health behaviours, such as the promotion of regular moderate-vigorous physical activity, improving dietary and sleep habits, and minimising stress.
The study reads in part, “In addition to improving other risk factors associated with inactivity, a ‘whole-of-day’ approach to reducing sitting time and increasing daily incidental movement may prove useful in its own right for improving BP control, particularly in at-risk populations and for those already managing hypertension.
“Such a strategy may also be an acceptable gateway for those who are physically inactive and highly sedentary, overweight, elderly, deconditioned, and unable or reluctant to add directly into structured exercise.
“In this regard, emerging strategies focusing on reducing and changing the patterns of sedentary behaviours may have the potential for lowering the incidence and prevalence of hypertension, as well as minimising medication use in those already treated.”
The study, however, concluded that further evidence is still required to inform the efficacy and specificity of sedentary behaviour recommendations for clinical practice and for public health policies aiming to reduce the burden of hypertension.
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