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Overweight, obesity in black women linked to occupational sitting
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Black women who sit more than 30 minutes a day at work are more likely to be obese or overweight compared with those who sit less than 30 minutes, according to recent study findings published in Preventing Chronic Disease.
“The objective of this study was to quantify the association between self-reported occupational sitting time and BMI by gender and race, independent of time spent in physical activity outside of work,” Lin Yang, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a press release. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine differences in the association between occupational sitting and weight status among African-American women and white women.”
Lin Yang
Yang, along with J. Aaron Hipp, PhD, and colleagues evaluated 1,891 adults (66.9% women; 63% white) to determine the effect of occupational sitting on weight status.
Overall, 32.3% of participants were overweight and 33.6% were obese. Participants spent a median daily time of 180 minutes sitting during work. No association was found in men between BMI and occupational sitting.
Obesity was 1.53 times more likely among women who spent 31 to 180 minutes sitting at work each day, 1.9 times as likely for those who spent 181 to 360 minutes and 1.7 times more likely among those who sat more than 360 minutes compared with women who spent 30 minutes or less (P value for trend=.02).
J. Aaron Hipp
No association was found between white women and occupational sitting; however, there was an association found for black women. Obesity was 2.43 times more likely among black women who spent 31 to 180 minutes daily sitting at work, 2.76 times as likely for those who spent 181 to 360 minutes and 2.53 times more likely among those who sat more than 360 minutes compared with black women who spent 30 minutes or less (P value for trend=.02).
“Be sure patients know that it isn’t just how much they exercise that affects obesity, it’s how much they sit at work as well,” Hipp told Endocrine Today. “Advise patients, especially African-American women who sit at work for more than 30 minutes, that they should break up their sitting with activity breaks, such as walking around the building, going up and down the stairs, standing and pacing during conference calls, or even finding a way to do their work standing up. A healthy lifestyle that combats obesity incorporates physical activity and non-sedentary time throughout the day, whether at work, home or at the gym.” – by Amber Cox
For more information:
J. Aaron Hipp, PhD, can be reached at ahipp@wustl.edu.
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute at NIH, Washington University and the Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer Center at Washington University.
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