Keep calm and fidget on.
New research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine gives all restless sitters a legitimate excuse to go on with their ways. Spearheaded by both University of Leeds and the University College of London (UCL), the research team analyzed data from the University of Leeds' UK Women's Cohort Study - one of the largest cohort studies of diet and health of women in the UK, as per a media release published on Eureka Alert.
Science Alert describes the data-gathering process wherein more than 35,000 women aged 37 to 78 years old who lived in the UK were asked to give information about "their diets, exercise regimes, health, and, on a scale from one to 10, how much they fidgeted." The same report revealed that the women who sat for greater than or equal to seven hours a day has a 30% chance of mortality than their "more active peers" during the study, with the exception of those who are "rampant fidgeters."
While there has been no study published that proves the impact of fidgeting between sitting time and mortality, Eureka Alert furthers that movements involved in fidgeting could possibly counteract the negative impacts of sitting for long periods of time:
Breaks in sitting time have previously been shown to improve markers of good health, such as body mass index and your body's glucose and insulin responses.
"Our results support the suggestion that it's best to avoid sitting still for long periods of time, and even fidgeting may offer enough of a break to make a difference," says the study's co-lead author Dr. Gareth Hagger-Johnson from UCL, who is the key person for the data analysis.
The study augments findings from previous studies that purport sedentary lifestyle to be bad for health, even if you have an active lifestyle outside of work. As the study is solely based on women's self-rating of how much they fidget while sitting down, researchers admit that the findings are not absolutely conclusive since it is entirely possible that the subjects "would classify themselves as habitual fidgeters when they barely move, and vice versa," as per Science Report.
"While further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health," notes lead researcher Janet Cade from the University of Leeds in a press release cited by Eureka Alert.
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