Study Finds Cutting Sitting Time Reduces Mortality Risk for CKM Patients

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association looked at how light physical activity is linked to the risk of death from any cause in people with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic or CKM syndrome. Researchers reviewed data from earlier studies involving more than 150,000 adults from the United States, Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom. All participants had their physical activity tracked using wearable devices. CKM stage zero included people with normal body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and kidney function. Stage one included people who were obese, had a large waist size, or had prediabetes. Since very few deaths occurred in these two groups, researchers combined them for the analysis. The most serious stages included people with severe kidney disease or a high risk of developing heart disease within 10 years. These patients were classified as stage three. Stage four included people who already had clear signs of cardiovascular disease. All participants were able to walk and wear activity trackers. Researchers used different statistical methods to study the link between light physical activity and death risk at each CKM stage. The analysis accounted for factors such as age, sex, race or ethnicity, and whether participants met recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity. The researchers also looked at the impact of sitting less. They found that reducing sitting time by just 30 minutes a day could prevent about 3 percent of deaths among the least active people and about 7 percent across all participants. "If all in the population groups decreased their sitting by 30 minutes, 3,000 and 7,000 deaths might be prevented in a population with 100,000 deaths — this is close to the annual death rate in Sweden," Ulf Ekelund, a principal investigator of the study, told Medical News Today. "We plan to examine the effects of small changes in daily steps on the potential number of deaths averted and possibly disease incidents." The findings highlighted the importance of public health messages that encourage light physical activity and replacing sitting time with movement. However, the researchers also noted that since this was an observational study, the results show a link, not direct cause and effect. "Getting people to move their bodies more in hopes it will make their daily activities easier and to help them live a longer and happier life is exactly what I preach every day," Alyssa Lombardi, exercise physiologist for the GoodLife Fitness Program at Hartford HealthCare, told Medical News Today. "Movement is medicine, even just five minutes can really improve someone's physical and mental state." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com