{"id":529971,"date":"2026-07-02T20:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/529971\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T20:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:26:11","slug":"sitting-for-more-than-half-an-hour-daily-increases-cancer-death-risk-study-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/529971\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting for more than half-an-hour daily increases cancer death risk \u2013 study \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting down for more than 30 minutes every day may increase the risk of dying from cancer, a study has found.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Glasgow found sitting or reclining for more than half-an-hour at a time every day was linked with a higher risk of cancer death, with that risk rising for each hour of continuous inactivity.<\/p>\n

However, scientists found the risk could be slashed by more than 20% if people swap sedentary behaviour for physical activity.<\/p>\n

The findings, from a study published in PLOS Medicine, show the negative health impacts of prolonged periods of sedentary behaviour on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

\"Collection<\/a>\"DHREMNDHREMN Colourful running shoes and star-spangled leggings. (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n

The researchers found breaking up sedentary behaviour with periods of physical activity could help reduce a range of cancer risks.<\/p>\n

The activities included light intensity exercises, including slow walking or everyday tasks such as housework.<\/p>\n

Long periods of sedentary behaviour, such as sitting or lying down while awake, have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers.<\/p>\n

But Glasgow University suggested that, until the study, not enough was known about the importance of how sedentary behaviour is accumulated, and whether light activity would make a difference.<\/p>\n

The research team analysed data from wearable devices worn by more than 91,000 UK Biobank participants who were followed up for an average of 12 years.<\/p>\n

\"2Y6YD2N2Y6YD2N Loading Laundry in Washing Machine at Home (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n

The data showed the total amount of prolonged inactivity \u2013 continuous inactivity for more than 30 minutes \u2013 was associated with cancer risks.<\/p>\n

Each additional hour of prolonged inactivity every day was associated with a 10% higher risk of cancer death.<\/p>\n

The researchers found the risk could be mitigated by replacing long spells of inactivity with movement.<\/p>\n

They found the risk of cancer death was 12% lower when one hour of sedentary behaviour was replaced with light physical activity each day, including slow walking or household tasks such as ironing or dishwashing.<\/p>\n

Cancer death risk was 8% lower when 30 minutes of inactivity was replaced with moderate physical activity each day, including walking at an average pace.<\/p>\n

The risk was 22% lower when five minutes of inactivity was replaced with five minutes of vigorous physical activity each day, the study found.<\/p>\n

Dr Frederick Ho, lead author of the study, said: \u201cWhat our data shows is that sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time is particularly linked to a higher risk of cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that breaking up your sitting time with something as simple as a short walk could be protective.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent health guidelines focus heavily on moderate or vigorous exercise, but our findings show that light movement shouldn\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, clinical trials will help us move beyond blanket advice and develop personalised strategies for breaking up sitting time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, Accelerometry-measured prolonged and interrupted sedentary behaviour and cancer incidence and mortality: A cohort study of 91,292 UK Biobank participants, was published in PLOS Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting down for more than 30 minutes every day may increase the risk of dying from cancer, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,69026,225650,24793,103,61,60,10556,9036,224314,1577,21192],"class_list":["post-529971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-risk","tag-cancer-risks","tag-glasgow","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-physical-activity","tag-scotland","tag-sedentary-behaviour","tag-uk","tag-university-of-glasgow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}