Review and special article
Adult Sedentary Behavior: A Systematic Review

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Context

While the health benefits of meeting moderate/vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) guidelines have been well established, the health risks of sedentary behavior, independent of meeting MVPA guidelines, are becoming evident. Sedentary behavior may require different interventions, based on correlates that differ from MVPA. The current review aimed to collect and appraise the current literature on correlates of sedentary behaviors among adults.

Evidence acquisition

Papers were considered eligible if they were published in English-language peer-reviewed journals and examined correlates of sedentary behaviors. Literature searches were conducted in August 2011 among ten search engines yielding 3691 potentially relevant records; of these, 109 papers (82 independent samples) passed eligibility criteria.

Evidence synthesis

Articles included were published between 1982 and 2011, with sample sizes ranging from 39 to 123,216. Eighty-three were cross-sectional, 24 followed a prospective design, one was experimental baseline data, and one was cohort design. Sedentary behavior was primarily measured as TV viewing or computer use, followed by analysis of a more omnibus assessment of time spent sitting. Evidence was present for sedentary behavior and correlates of education, age, employment status, gender, BMI, income, smoking status, MVPA, attitudes, and depressive symptoms/quality of life. Notable differences by specific sedentary behaviors were present that aided in the explanation of findings.

Conclusions

Results point to the high specificity of various sedentary behaviors (e.g., TV viewing vs sitting and socializing), suggesting that the research domain is complex and cannot be considered the simple absence of MVPA. Several sociodemographic and health factors appear reliably linked to sedentary behavior, yet there is an obvious absence of research focused on cognitive, social, and environmental factors that could be of use in anti–sedentary behavior interventions.

Section snippets

Context

The health benefits of regular moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) continue to accumulate as the research in this domain grows.1, 2 Indeed, regular physical activity is associated with the reduction of more than 25 chronic diseases, including all-cause mortality, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, type II diabetes, and certain forms of cancer.3 With this overwhelming evidence, most nations have formal position stands that recommend at least 150 minutes of regular MVPA per

Inclusion Criteria

Studies featuring a correlate or correlates of sedentary behavior were included within this review. Papers had to be from peer-reviewed, English-language journals.

Exclusion Criteria

Exclusion criteria for this review were pre-established by all three authors. Studies were excluded if they (1) examined child, adolescent, or clinical populations; (2) did not include an expression of at least one variable and its relationship to a sedentary behavior; (3) did not include a measure of sedentary behavior that was

Evidence Synthesis

The process for undergoing the literature search and screening, including number of papers excluded and the reasons for exclusion can be found in Figure 1. Briefly, initial database searches and manual reference checks yielded 3691 potentially relevant articles. Of these, 3582 were excluded throughout the screening process (Figure 1). Overall, 109 papers examining 82 samples passed the eligibility criteria to be included in the review22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37

Conclusion

The purpose of the present study was to review the literature that has focused on the correlates of sedentary behavior among adults. All published literature that met our search criteria was included and themed by broad categories of demographic, behavioral, cognitive, social, and physical environment variables. This review assessed 82 independent samples (109 peer-reviewed papers) from all inhabited continents. TV viewing proved the most prevalent sedentary behavior that was measured, although

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