Image by Sarkawt Jabar from Pixabay
Image by Sarkawt Jabar from Pixabay

EXPERT REACTION: Less sitting could lower your blood pressure

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Randomised controlled trial: Subjects are randomly assigned to a test group, which receives the treatment, or a control group, which commonly receives a placebo. In 'blind' trials, participants do not know which group they are in; in ‘double blind’ trials, the experimenters do not know either. Blinding trials helps removes bias.

People: This is a study based on research using people.

Spending less time sitting could help reduce blood pressure in people over 60, according to an Australian and international study. The study split around 280 people with high blood pressure into 2 groups, one group was given interventions to help them reduce the time they spent sitting, including health coaching, a standing desk and a fitness tracker, while the second group only received health coaching. The study found those in the sitting intervention group spent about 30 mins less a day sitting and also had a reduction in their blood pressure of around 3.48mmHg. The authors say sitting reduction could be a promising approach to improve health in older adults.

Journal/conference: JAMA Network Open

Link to research (DOI): 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.3234

Organisation/s: Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Deakin University, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, USA

Funder: The study was funded by grant R01 HL132880 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Dr Rosenberg).

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Expert Reaction

These comments have been collated by the Science Media Centre to provide a variety of expert perspectives on this issue. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Views expressed are the personal opinions of the experts named. They do not represent the views of the SMC or any other organisation unless specifically stated.

Professor David Dunstan is the Laboratory Head for Physical Activity at the Baker Institute

A remotely delivered sitting reduction intervention was feasible in older adults and successfully reduced sitting time

Older adults can experience significant barriers to undertaking sufficient amounts of physical activity – these findings indicate that an initial focus on reducing sitting time can successfully reduce blood pressure and may therefore provide a promising ‘pathway’ to having more older adults adopt active living patterns.

Findings show that even small reductions in sitting time (~30 mins daily) can result in meaningful blood pressure reductions in older adults that are commensurate with the effects that have reported following aerobic physical activity interventions.

Last updated: 26 Mar 2024 3:28pm
Declared conflicts of interest:
None declared.

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