Kuala Lumpur, 25 April 2019 — A new study published recently, found that Americans spent more time sitting down than ever before.
The study found that Americans, especially adolescents, were going through their days mostly in sedentary positions. Examination of behaviour over the past decade to 2016, found that adolescent Americans typically spent more than eight hours a day sitting down, an increase from seven previously recorded.
They were found to be the group which spent the most time and had the biggest increase compared to the other groups studied.
Adults, though also found to have increased their hours sitting down, spent just over six hours overall, much less than those of adolescents.
According to the study, most of the population spent at least three hours a day or more watching television or some kind of video.
Most of these sitting habits were found to be consistent throughout early childhood to late adulthood. This indicated that such habits would be hard to change or deconstruct as they were ingrained across generations.
The authors of the report highlighted the health risks involved with such sedentary behaviour. These included increased risks of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. All would result in increased mortality.
