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Sedentariness is a major cause of obesity and being overweight, and is directly and indirectly linked with major chronic diseases especially cardiovascular disease (WHO, 2015). The highest prevalence of sedentary behaviour exists within the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean, but globally 31% of the population is physically inactive. This accounts for 6% of world mortality; with 27% of deaths for those with diabetes attributed to low activity levels (WHO, 2011).Sedentary behaviours such as watching TV and prolonged sitting hours are now known causes of diabetes (Hu et al., 2003; Matthews et al., 2008).

 

Recent reviews have made a case for diabetes causes, amongst other chronic diseases, from sedentary behaviours, distinctly from that caused by physical inactivity (Dempsey et al., 2014). Whilst, a positive association exists between the incidence of type-II diabetes and television viewing time (Dempsey et al., 2014), those with diabetes have also been noted to take on average 2000 less steps per day (Liese et al., 2013). A dose-response relationship exists between the volume of time of uninterrupted sitting and poor metabolic health (Owen et al., 2014). Approximately 55% of the waking day is spent on sedentary activity (Matthews et al., 2008) and those with diabetes are known to spend a larger volume of time being inactive when compared to their non-diabetic counterparts (Public Health England, 2014).

 

Individuals who spend more than 10 hours a day sitting have a 34% higher all-cause mortality risk than those who spend just one hour of their waking day sitting (Chau et al., 2012). Therefore, reducing sedentary behaviour requires further action that is additional to that of promoting physical activity.