Impact of Prolonged Sitting on Peripheral and Central Vascular Health

Authors

Daniel Credeur, University of Southern MississippiFollow
Sabina Miller, University of Southern Mississippi
Raymond Jones, University of Southern MississippiFollow
Stoner Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
David R. Dolbow, University of Southern MississippiFollow
Simon Fryer, University of GloucestershireFollow
Keeron Stone, University of Gloucestershire
Stephanie M. McCoy, University of Southern MississippiFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-15-2019

Department

Kinesiology

Abstract

Prolonged, uninterrupted sitting negatively impacts markers of peripheral vascular health, particularly, vasodilatory function of leg arteries. Whether sitting can similarly impact measures of central vascular health, as well as overall leg vasoreactivity (i.e., vasodilatory and vasoconstrictor function) remains unknown. To address this, measurements were made in relatively healthy participants (i.e., free of overt disease; n = 20, age = 26 ± 7; body mass index = 30 ± 7 kg/m²; 7 female) pre, during and post 3 hours of uninterrupted sitting. Measures of central vascular health included arterial wave reflection (augmentation index and Reflection Magnitude—RM%) and aortic vascular stiffness (aortic pulse wave velocity). Local vasoreactivity of the distal, posterior tibial artery was measured using flow-mediated dilation—FMD, coupled with low-flow mediated constriction, and microvascular function was assessed through the total hyperemic blood velocity (area-under-curve) response during FMD. After sitting, there was a significant increase in aortic pulse wave velocity (pre sit = 5.7 ± 0.3 vs post sit = 6.1 ± 0.3 m/s; p = 0.009, d = 0.36), whereas, augmentation index decreased (pre sit = 13 ± 3 vs post sit = 3 ± 1%; p < 0.001, d = 0.71). Albeit a moderate effect for decrease, RM% was not significantly altered during sitting (p = 0.13, d = 0.3). Vasodilatory (i.e., FMD pre sit = 0.5 ± 0.04 vs post sit = 0.3 ± 0.04 mm; p = 0.014, d = 0.29) and microvascular function (i.e., Microvascular area-under-curve: pre sit = 2,196 ± 333 vs 1,157±172 AU; p = 0.003, d = 0.31) decreased, but vasoconstrictor function (low-flow mediated constriction; p = 0.85, d = 0.005) was unaffected by sitting. In conclusion, these data demonstrate that a prolonged bout of uninterrupted sitting negatively impacts markers of peripheral and central vascular health in relatively healthy adults.

Publication Title

The American Journal of Cardiology

Volume

123

Issue

2

First Page

260

Last Page

266

Recommended Citation

Credeur, D., Miller, S., Jones, R., Lee, S., Dolbow, D. R., Fryer, S., Stone, K., McCoy, S. M. (2019). Impact of Prolonged Sitting on Peripheral and Central Vascular Health. The American Journal of Cardiology, 123(2), 260-266.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/15623