A new study suggests that fidgeting from your chair can offset the health damage associated to long sitting hours, even if it looks annoying for some people.
Earlier studies have linked sitting hours to increased cancer risk, kidney disease and other chronic illnesses. There are different recommendations to offset these negative health impacts. such as walking an extra two minutes per hour or doing a five-minute walk after sitting for long hours, as HNGN previously reported. But what if you are now allowed to leave your desk and walk around or you are just feeling too lazy to stand up? A new study suggests that fidgeting can help.
Janet Cade, lead study author and professor from the University of Leeds in England, and her colleagues examined the data of nearly 13,000 women with ages 37 to 78 between 1999 and 2002. They looked at the average sitting time and overall fidgeting time of the participants. They also factored in physical activity, diet, smoking status, and alcohol consumption.
After 12 years of follow-up period, the analysis showed that fidgeting can lower the risk of dying from different diseases by 30 percent for women who sit at least seven hours per day compared to those who sit for the same amount of time but don’t fidget that much. The researchers found that some people actually spend up to 15 hours sitting down per day.
"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," Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson from UCL, who conducted the data analysis, said in a press release.
The researchers admitted that further study is needed. However, they believe that their findings offer evidence that fidgeting is beneficial to one's health.
"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," Cade added.
The study was published in the Sept. 23 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
