Variation in population levels of sedentary time in European adults according to cross-European studies: a systematic literature review within DEDIPAC

Linde Van Hecke,Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij,On Behalf Of The Dedipac Consortium ,Ingrid Hendriksen,Jeroen Lakerveld,Alan Donnelly,Anne Loyen,Maïté Verloigne,Annemarie Koster,Benedicte Deforche,Jostein Steene-Johannessen,Hidde P. van der Ploeg,Ulf Ekelund,Johannes Brug

doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0397-3

Abstract

BackgroundSedentary behaviour is increasingly recognized as a public health risk that needs to be monitored at the population level. Across Europe, there is increasing interest in assessing population levels of sedentary time. This systematic literature review aims to provide an overview of all existing cross-European studies that measure sedentary time in adults, to describe the variation in population levels across these studies and to discuss the impact of assessment methods.MethodsSix literature databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SportDiscus and OpenGrey) were searched, supplemented with backward- and forward tracking and searching authors’ and experts’ literature databases. Articles were included if they reported on observational studies measuring any form of sedentary time in the general population in two or more European countries. Each record was reviewed, extracted and assessed by two independent researchers, and disagreements were resolved by a third researcher. The review protocol of this review is registered in the PROSPERO database under registration number CRD42014010335.ResultsOf the 9,756 unique articles that were identified in the search, twelve articles were eligible for inclusion in this review, reporting on six individual studies and three Eurobarometer surveys. These studies represented 2 to 29 countries, and 321 to 65,790 participants. Eleven studies focused on total sedentary time, while one studied screen time. The majority of studies used questionnaires to assess sedentary time, while two studies used accelerometers. Total sedentary time was reported most frequently and varied from 150 (median) to 620 (mean) minutes per day across studies and countries.ConclusionsOne third of European countries were not included in any of the studies. Objective measures of European adults are currently limited, and most studies used single-item self-reported questions without assessing sedentary behaviour types or domains. Findings varied substantially between studies, meaning that population levels of sedentary time in European adults are currently unknown. In general, people living in northern Europe countries appear to report more sedentary time than southern Europeans. The findings of this review highlight the need for standardisation of the measurement methods and the added value of cross-European surveillance of sedentary behaviour.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0397-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Sedentary behaviour is increasingly recognized as a public health risk that needs to be monitored at the population level
When combining the numbers of the original search and the update, 14,039 records were identified through the database search and 29 through the additional search, 9756 of which remained after duplicates were removed
80 records were identified as eligible to be included in the review article(s), of which twelve [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] were included in the current review on sedentary time in adults

Summary

Introduction

Sedentary behaviour is increasingly recognized as a public health risk that needs to be monitored at the population level. Across Europe, there is increasing interest in assessing population levels of sedentary time This systematic literature review aims to provide an overview of all existing cross-European studies that measure sedentary time in adults, to describe the variation in population levels across these studies and to discuss the impact of assessment methods. Time spent in sedentary behaviours is often referred to as sedentary time or its proxy sitting time It is distinct from physical inactivity, which is defined as not meeting the physical activity recommendations [2]. The risk of all-cause mortality has been reported to increase if adults sit more than approximately seven hours per day [4]. Internationally comparable data will allow cross-country comparisons and benchmarking

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