Abstract
Background: Emerging literature suggests that sedentary behaviour has negative health consequences. To date, however, very little is known about the sedentary behaviours of individuals living with heart disease. The purpose of this study was to objectively measure sedentary behaviours of this population and to examine its relationship with demographic and clinical variables. Methods: 287 patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease at 8 sites across Canada wore an accelerometer and GPS unit for 7 days and completed a questionnaire that included demographic and clinical characteristics. Accelerometers had to be worn for a minimum of 10 hours/day for at least 3 days to be used in the analyses. ActiLife 6 software was used to calculate the number of sedentary bouts and the total time in sedentary bouts / day. Results: Data for 278 patients (mean age = 65.72; 72.7% male; 90.9% white) were analyzed. On average, patients engaged in 12.3 (SD=3.96) bouts/day and 257.61 (SD=100) minutes/day of sedentary activity. Zero-order correlations showed that being older (r=.221, p<.001), male (r=-.212; p=.001) and married/ common-law (r=.161; p=.01) were significantly associated with increased number of sedentary bouts/day, and being older (r=.269, p<.001), male (r=-.188; p<.005), and not employed (r=.159; p=.01) were significantly associated with increased sedentary minutes / day. No clinical variables were associated with sedentary bouts or minutes. Conclusions: Sedentary behaviour appears to be problematic for heart disease patients. Based on the preliminary findings, age, gender, marital status, and employment status should be considered in the design of sedentary behaviour interventions.Acknowledgments: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)