Increased risk of obesity and central obesity in sedentary postmenopausal women

Abstract

To establish the influence of a sedentary behavior (sit time) on body composition in elderly women from Aragón. A total of 457 women participated in the study. Hours of walking were used to define the active behavior (> 1 vs. < 1 h/day) and hours of sitting were used to establish the sedentary behavior (> 4 vs. < 4 h/day). Anthropometric evaluation was conducted following the ISAK recommendations. Fat mass was estimated through electrical bio-impedance. Differences between groups were analyzed by ANOVA and logistic regression analysis was used to study the association between active and sedentary behaviors with body composition. The sedentary group had higher weight, BMI, waist circumference and fat mass than the non-sedentary group (all p < 0.05). In addition, those women who sat more than 4 h/day had 1.7, 2.7 and 1.7-fold higher odds ratio for having overweight, obesity and central obesity, respectively, regardless of the hours of walking (95% IC [1.006-2.739]; [1.518-4.491] y [1.154-2.565]). When activity and sedentary levels were studied together, active and sedentary women were 2.0 times more likely to be overweight (95% CI [0.995-3.961]), 4.4 to be obese (95% CI [2.101-9.264]) and 2.3 for having central obesity (95% CI [1.329-3.939]) than women with an active and non-sedentary behavior. Being sitting more than 4 hours a day increases the risk of overweight, obesity and central obesity, regardless of the hours of walking in postmenopausal women.