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S. Alothman1, H. Almosabihi2, R. Gaid2, A. Alghannam1
1Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Lifestyle and Health Research Center, Health Science Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Background: Sedentary behavior is an emerging health risk across gender and age in both healthy and disease individuals. It has been defined as any waking behavior with energy expenditure of ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents while in sitting or reclining position. Modern lifestyle and the dependency on computers and telecommunication technology in workplace and homes have encouraged sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary behavior as any health behavior might be influenced by culture and socioeconomical factors. Thus, before designing sedentary behavior interventions or health promotion programs for people living in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries we need to systematically evaluate the current state of sedentary behavior prevalence and impact on health in the area.
Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of sedentary behavior and its impact on health in the GCC countries.
Methods: An electronic literature search was conducted using the PubMed, CINAHL, EBSCO, and OVID databases, with search terms: sedentary, sit, and one name of the GCC countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, or United Arab Emirates (UAE)) up to July 2020. Included study in the final analysis had to be written in English, peer-reviewed, reported sedentary behavior outcomes, involved human participants, and were conducted in one of the GCC countries. Eligible suited were assessed for methodological quality by Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. All studies design, participant characteristics, intervention, and key findings were evaluated systematically and summarized.
Results: A total of 38 studies from all GCC countries were included in the final analysis. The majority of the studies were completed in Saudi Arabia. All included studies used a cross-sectional study design except for one study that was a case-control study. However, only 53% of the studies indicated good methodological quality based the used assessment tool. Eighteen out of 38 studies assessed sedentary behavior in adolescents. Sedentary behavior was assessed in these studies in relation with obesity, dietary habits, cardiovascular disease risk, metabolic syndrome, COPD, physical fitness, diabetes, general health, demographical factors, and sedentary behavior prevalence. Overall, total time spend in sedentary behavior can range from 4.99 to 8.96 hours per day in children and adolescents. In adults, sedentary behavior estimate ranges from 4.52 to 15 hours per day. Finally, about half of the studies showed that female engaged in sedentary behavior activities at a higher rate compared to males.
Conclusion(s): Most of these studies are observational with some methodological limitations of choosing appropriate sedentary behavior definition and methods of assessment. Sedentary behavior field in GCC countries need to assess sedentary behavior at the population level using good methodological studies in healthy and people with different conditions to establish national sedentary behavior prevalence and identify risk factors associated with it
Implications: Researcher in GCC countries need to establish comparable assessment tools of sedentary behavior to allow for useful data comparison and inference between studies. Further, sedentary behavior needs to be assessed taken in account cultural context
Funding, acknowledgements: This research received no external funding
Keywords: Sedentary behavior, Siting time, Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
Topic: Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Institution: NA
Committee: NA
Reason: reported study is a systematic review
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
