Older People Can Learn To Spend Less Time Sitting Down -- New Study

The pilot study, Take Active Breaks from Sitting (TABS), examined if retired adults can be taught to spend less time in resting positions. In the press release, researchers state that the study was conducted because older adults spend an average of 8.5 waking hours in a sitting or lying down position and this length of time has a lot of negative impacts on the individual’s health.

TABS study leader Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH, an assistant scientific investigator at Group Health Research Institute, states that this is linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and death, irrespective of how they spend the remaining hours of their waking time. She explained that there was no study done that proves reducing resting time would improve their health which means that proving these randomized trials is a must. Since such trials have not been conducted in the past, Dr. Rosenberg and her team took the initiative to coach adults to spend less time sitting.

The study was conducted on 25 adults aged 60 or older. They were motivated via phone conversations, and told to set goals to stand and move more often and reduce their sitting time. These motivational interviews happened five times in the course of eight weeks, the press release states. Midway through the study and towards the end, they used devices to check how much they were sitting. Researchers provided them with charts and feedback on the basis of the measurements they received. This worked as motivating systems as participants reported that the feedback seemed like a reward for their actions.

The study’s results were published in the journal, Health Education & Behavior. The study paper is titled, "The Feasibility of Reducing Sitting Time in Overweight and Obese Older Adults."

The Gerontologist used interviews of participants and the overall results they experienced and published a paper on the study. The paper is titled, "Motivators and Barriers to Reducing Sedentary Behavior Among Overweight and Obese Older Adults."

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