(Press-News.org) Low energy activities that involve sitting down are associated with an increased risk of anxiety, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. These activities, which include watching TV, working at a computer or playing electronic games, are called sedentary behavior. Further understanding of these behaviors and how they may be linked to anxiety could help in developing strategies to deal with this mental health problem.
Many studies have shown that sedentary behavior is associated with physical health problems like obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. However, there has been little research into the link between sedentary behavior and mental health. This is the first systematic review to examine the relationship between anxiety and sedentary behavior.
Anxiety is a mental health illness that affects more than 27 million people worldwide. It is a debilitating illness that can result in people worrying excessively and can prevent people carrying out their daily life. It can also result in physical symptoms, which amongst others includes pounding heartbeat, difficulty breathing, tense muscles, and headaches.
Megan Teychenne, lead researcher and lecturer at Deakin University's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research (C-PAN) in Australia, said: "Anecdotally - we are seeing an increase in anxiety symptoms in our modern society, which seems to parallel the increase in sedentary behavior. Thus, we were interested to see whether these two factors were in fact linked. Also, since research has shown positive associations between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms, this was another foundation for further investigating the link between sedentary behavior and anxiety symptoms."
C-PAN researchers analyzed the results of nine studies that specifically examined the association between sedentary behavior and anxiety. The studies varied in what they classified as sedentary behavior from television viewing/computer use to total sitting time, which included sitting while watching television, sitting while on transport and work-related sitting. Two of the studies included children/adolescents while the remaining seven included adults.
It was found in five of the nine studies that an increase in sedentary behavior was associated with an increased risk of anxiety. In four of the studies it was found that total sitting time was associated with increased risk of anxiety. The evidence about screen time (TV and computer use) was less strong but one study did find that 36% of high school students that had more than 2 hours of screen time were more like to experience anxiety compared to those who had less than 2 hours.
The C-PAN team suggests the link between sedentary behavior and anxiety could be due to disturbances in sleep patterns, social withdrawal theory and poor metabolic health. Social withdrawal theory proposes that prolonged sedentary behavior, such as television viewing, can lead to withdrawal from social relationships, which has been linked to increased anxiety. As most of the studies included in this systematic-review were cross-sectional the researchers say more follow-up work studies are required to confirm whether or not anxiety is caused by sedentary behavior.
Megan Teychenne said: "It is important that we understand the behavioral factors that may be linked to anxiety - in order to be able to develop evidence-based strategies in preventing/managing this illness. Our research showed that evidence is available to suggest a positive association between sitting time and anxiety symptoms - however, the direction of this relationship still needs to be determined through longitudinal and interventional studies."
INFORMATION:
Media Contacts
Joel Winston
Media Officer
BioMed Central
T: +44 (0)20 3192 2081
M: + 44 (0)77 6654 0147
E: joel.winston@biomedcentral.com
Donna Le Page
PR Consultant to Deakin University's C-PAN
M: +61 412 797 937
E: donna@lepage-pr.com.au
Notes to editor:
1. Research article
The association between sedentary behaviour and risk of anxiety: A Systematic Review
Megan Teychenne, Sarah A Costigan and Kate Parker
BMC Public Health 2015
doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1843-x
For an embargoed copy of the research article, please contact joel.winston@biomedcentral.com
After embargo article available at journal website here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1843-x
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
2. BMC Public Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health. The journal has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental, behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the community.
3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. http://www.biomedcentral.com
In a new study published today in The Veterinary Journal, scientists from the University of Surrey warn about the numerous risks posed to racehorses from the misuse of cobalt chloride, a banned performance-enhancing agent that has been used illegally by trainers in Australia and USA. The team of researchers have uncovered that when excessive levels of the alleged performance-enhancing substance are administered to a horse, it can cause serious cardiovascular issues, potential nerve problems, thickening of the blood and thyroid toxicity. The researchers also pointed to ...
In a study that contradicts the received wisdom on health impacts of climate change, scientists say that we shouldn't expect substantial reduction in winter deaths as a result of global warming. This new research is published today (Friday 19 June) in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters journal.
The research team was led by Professor Patrick Kinney of Columbia University in the USA.
Professor Kinney said "As Dr Margaret Chan told delegates at the recent World Health Assembly, we need to know the potential impacts of climate change on health so that we can ...
Doctors often misdiagnose zinc deficiency, and seem to be unaware of the impact of excess zinc on the body, shows a small audit of clinical practice, published online in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
Too much zinc, taken in the form of dietary supplements, may disrupt copper uptake, leading to neurological problems and anaemia, the evidence indicates.
Zinc is an essential trace element that is required in daily quantities of 5.5 to 9.5 mg for men, and 4 to 7 mg for women. But zinc supplements are usually only available in formulations of 45 or 50 mg. The US recommended ...
The inclusion of experimenters -- who are unlikely to become habitual users -- in e-cigarette prevalence studies is of 'questionable' value for monitoring population public health trends, finds research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.
Setting the threshold at a minimum of use on six out of the past 30 days would eliminate many of those who are motivated primarily by curiosity and unlikely to become regular users. And it would provide a more accurate picture of use, say the researchers.
There is no uniform definition for current users of e-cigarettes. ...
Endometrial cancer (EC) can spread by several routes, including the lymph system, blood vessels, through the uterine wall, as well as through the fallopian tubes into the peritoneal cavity, but the association of transtubal dissemination of EC with cancer stage, histological type, and mortality is unknown. However, according to a study published June 18 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, women who have undergone a tubal ligation (TL) and develop more aggressive types of EC may have lower mortality. The authors postulate that women who have had TL have ...
DALLAS, June 18 -- Individual state stroke legislation plays a compelling role in certifying primary stroke centers and improving availability and accessibility of care to acute stroke patients, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.
A hospital that has been certified as a Primary Stroke Center (PSC) has met specific standards for delivering prompt stroke care. To be eligible, hospitals must meet several criteria, including setting up a dedicated stroke-focused program staffed by medical professionals trained in stroke care.
Researchers ...
University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser is a pioneer in using DNA evidence to trace the origin of illegal ivory and help police an international trade that is decimating African elephant populations.
The broadest application yet uses DNA from tons of ivory samples associated with large-scale trafficking. Results show that over the past decade, ivory has largely come from just two areas in Africa -- one each for the forest and savanna elephants. The findings are published June 18 in the journal Science.
'Africa is a huge continent, and poaching is occurring ...
This news release is available in Japanese.
New genetic tools are helping researchers to trace illegal ivory back to the elephant populations from which it came, and they might help law enforcement crack down on poaching in the future. Elephant poaching is happening at rates that threaten African populations with extinction. After analyzing 28 ivory seizures made between 1996 and 2014 -- each of them containing half a ton of tusks or more -- Samuel Wasser and colleagues suggest that the illegal ivory trade has been fueled primarily by two poaching hotspots in Africa ...
This news release is available in Japanese.
Researchers have found evidence of shared decision-making among a troop of wild baboons, providing insight into how animals that live in socially complex, hierarchical societies reach consensus on decisions that affect the entire group. Until now, researchers had wondered if animals with clear hierarchies, such as primates or wolves, use democracy to reach a consensus -- or if their decisions are governed by dominant leaders. It's been difficult to study this, however, because recording the behavior of many individuals simultaneously ...
This news release is available in Japanese. A new study aiming to provide a better understanding of how injection wells in the U.S. influence earthquake activity cites wastewater injection rate as a critical factor. In the study, the highest-rate wastewater disposal wells analyzed were nearly twice as likely to be associated with earthquake events compared to their lower-rate counterparts. Earthquakes can be induced by industrial processes, a fact established decades ago. Since 2009, when seismicity in the U.S. midcontinent began to surge, earthquakes induced by the underground ...
