Dr. Alpa Patel, PhD, epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues reported that women have a 10% higher risk of having any malignancy from sitting 6 or more hours a day during their leisure time compared with those who sit less than 3 hours a day. This study was published last month in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention. Dr. Alpa Patel and colleagues believed that time spent sitting have a much more devastating effect than time spent doing a minimal amount of physical activity. According to Dr. Alpa Patel and team, the difference between time spent sitting and time spent doing minimal activity is significantly different, hence the publication of their study.

Dr. Alpa Patel and colleagues conducted their study based on a data analysis of 77,462 women and 69,260 men enrolled in the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition. All of the participants were cancer-free upon enrollment. 12,236 women and 18,555 men were diagnosed with cancer between 1992 and 2009. Dr. Alpa Patel and colleagues followed up women for an average of 15.8 years and men for an average of 13.2 years. Further study result revealed that there is a 10% higher risk for invasive breast cancer, a 43% higher risk for ovarian cancer, and a 65% higher risk for multiple myeloma by sitting 6 or more hours a day during leisure time compared with women sitting fewer than 3 hours a day. Further details of the result can be found here.

Dr. Alpa Patel quoted that this study has opened up one more way for women to lower their total risk of breast cancer by sitting less. This study has also shown that the cancer risk pattern for women was not seen in men. There is no correlation between cancer risk in men with leisure time spent sitting at all. However, among obese men there is an 11% increased risk associated with leisure time spent sitting.

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