A sedentary lifestyle is a type of lifestyle involving little or no physical activity. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like reading, socializing, watching television, playing video games, or using a mobile phone/computer for much of the day. A sedentary lifestyle can potentially contribute to ill health and many preventable causes of death.[1]
Screen time is a modern term for the amount of time a person spends looking at a screen such as a television, computer monitor, or mobile device. Excessive screen time is linked to negative health consequences.
Effects of a sedentary work life or lifestyle can be either direct or indirect. One of the most prominent direct effects of a sedentary lifestyle is an increased BMI leading to obesity. A lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of preventable death worldwide.
At least 300,000 premature deaths and $90 billion in direct healthcare costs are caused by obesity and sedentary lifestyle per year in the US alone. The risk is higher among those that sit still more than 5 hours per day. It is shown to be a risk factor on its own independent of hard exercise and BMI. People that sit still more than 4 hours per day have a 40 percent higher risk than those that sit fewer than 4 hours per day. However, those that exercise at least 4 hours per week are as healthy as those that sit fewer than 4 hours per day.
Indirectly, an increased BMI due to a sedentary lifestyle can lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism from necessary activities like work. Missing work and not being productive results in obvious short term and long term effects like less income and job security.
A sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity can contribute to or be a risk factor for:
- Anxiety
- Cardiovascular disease
- Migraines
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Computer vision syndrome only for computers and tablets
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Gout
- High blood pressure
- Lipid disorders
- Skin problems such as hair loss]
- Mortality in adults
- Obesity
- Osteoporosis
- Scoliosis
- Spinal disc herniation (low back pain)
Lifestyle 