The next few months will be a challenge for Canadians who do not embrace winter. Those inclined to hunker down may find themselves sitting in front of a computer or television screen, or curled up under a blanket scrolling on a phone for long stretches of time.
However, sitting, lying down or reclining for hours on end can lead to health problems, including a greater risk of obesity, hypertension, depression, chronic conditions, diseases and premature death.
According to the new Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, adults should limit their sedentary time to eight hours or less per day, including three hours or less of recreational screen time.
Prior to the pandemic, we asked Canadians how much time they spent in wakeful sedentary behaviour per day. We also provided an accelerometer to survey participants. Accelerometers are small devices worn on a belt around the waist that capture daily movement patterns, including how much time is spent sedentary.
There was, ahem, a divergence between what Canadians told us and what the accelerometers indicated.
Canadian adults told us they spent, on average, 3.2 hours per day in front of screens and 5.7 hours per day sitting. Over half of Canadians (58%) met the threshold of 3 hours or less per day of recreational screen time, while nearly three in four (72%) met the sitting time threshold of 7 hours per day.
However, when measured by accelerometers, total sedentary time was 9.8 hours per day, which translates into just over one-quarter (27%) of Canadian adults meeting the sedentary time recommendation.
Whichever data source you choose to believe, one thing holds true, more Canadian adults met the sedentary behaviour recommendations if they were also meeting the physical activity recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, compared with those not meeting the physical activity recommendations.
The full analytical article "How sedentary are Canadian adults? It depends on the measure" was released in the October 2022 issue of Health Reports.
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