The Direct Healthcare Costs of Sedentary Behaviour in the UK study can be found here.
9 April 2019 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Sitting for prolonged periods throughout the day could be linked to almost 70,000 deaths in 2016, according to latest academic research.
The study also states that it costs the National Health Service £0.7 billion to treat disease resulting from 'binge-sitting'.
Academics at the Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, and the School of Health Sciences, Ulster University at Newtownabbey, calculated costs associated with prolonged sedentary behaviour over a one-year period in 2016-2017.
The study, published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that expenditure on cardiovascular disease CVD was £424 million, type 2 diabetes was £281 million, colon cancer was £30 million, lung cancer was £19 million, and endometrial cancer cost £7 million.
The authors state that "if prolonged sedentary behaviour was eliminated, 69 276 UK deaths might have been avoided in 2016".
In this conservative estimate of direct healthcare costs, prolonged sedentary behaviour causes "a considerable burden to the NHS in the UK", they added.
They conclude: "This estimate may be used by decision-makers when prioritising healthcare resources and investing in preventative public health programmes."
The study can be found here.
See our latest Think Tank to have your say on 'binge sitting' in your workplace.