The large study provided fresh evidence of the negative health effects of a sedentary lifestyle, particularly in a regular office job - with these lifestyles demonstrating higher risks of death by cardiovascular disease for example.

Researchers from Taiwan studied 481,688 participants with an average age of 39 for 13 years, during which time there were a reported 26, 257 deaths in the sample.

As part of the experiment, they also tracked the amount of “leisure-time physical activity” undertaken by those in the group to control for supplementary activity.

Worryingly, it found that working in an occupation that involved prolonged sitting could lead to long term health problems, including a 16 per cent higher risk of dying overall.

There was a significant 34 per cent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease when researchers compared those who mostly sat with those who were mostly engaged in “non-sitting work”.

The in-depth research also investigated how activity in people’s spare time impacted their mortality. It found that a relatively inactive person who worked in a sedentary job could increase their exercise level by between 15 and 30 minutes a day and see a “reduction in mortality to a level similar to that of inactive individuals who mostly do not sit at work”.

Source: Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exercise-minutes-desk-job-b2481846.html