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Association between Sedentary Time and 6-Year All-Cause Mortality in Adults: The Rural Chinese Cohort Study

  • Original Research
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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

This study aims to prospectively explore the association between sedentary time and the risk of all-cause mortality in adults based on a cohort from rural areas of China.

Methods

The study population included 20,194 adults at baseline (2007–2008) who participated in the Rural Chinese Cohort Study. Cox’s proportional hazard regression model was used to analyze the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of sedentary time and all-cause mortality, and a restricted cubic spline was used to model the dose-response relation. We also carried out a series of sensitivity analyses to verify the robustness of our main results.

Results

The median follow-up duration was 6 years, with a total of 17,265 participants (response rate 85.5%) followed up, and 1,106 deaths observed. Data for 17,048 participants were analyzed, with the mean age of participants being 52.00. Compared with sedentary time <4 h/day group, the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly increased in the 8–11 h/day (HR=1.27, 95%CI:1.03–1.56) and ≥11 h/ day groups (HR=1.48, 95%CI:1.20–1.84). With increases in sedentary time, the risk of all-cause mortality increased gradually (Ptrend <0.001). For each 1 h/day increase in sedentary time, the risk of all-cause mortality increased by 3% (HR=1.03, 95%CI: 1.01–1.05). Sensitivity analyses showed our main results were consistent.

Conclusions

Prolonged sedentary time increases the risk of all-cause mortality in the adult rural Chinese population. Reducing sedentary time may have important implications for reducing mortality risk.

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Funding

Funding: This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81402752 and 81673260) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (grant no. 2019A1515011183).

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongsheng Hu.

Ethics declarations

This study conformed to the ethical guidelines of the 2008 Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Shenzhen University Health Science Center. All participants provided written informed consent prior to being administered the survey.

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Conflict of Interest

We declare that we have no financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work. In case animals were involved, all applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Li, Y., Zhou, Q., Luo, X. et al. Association between Sedentary Time and 6-Year All-Cause Mortality in Adults: The Rural Chinese Cohort Study. J Nutr Health Aging 26, 236–242 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1727-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1727-6

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