A report on sedentary behavior among middle-aged Korean men links prolonged sitting to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Published in the Journal of Hepatology, the research will increase attention to the effect of spending hours a day upon one's arse, working, watching TV or fooling around with phones and computers.
Elsevier, via r/science
In the current study researchers examined the association of sitting time and physical activity level with NAFLD in Korean men and women to explore whether any observed associations were related to the amount of body fat. They studied records of nearly 140,000 Koreans who underwent a health examination between March 2011 and December 2013. Physical activity level and sitting time were assessed using the Korean version of the international Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form. The presence of fatty liver was determined using ultrasonography.
Of the people studied, nearly 40,000 had NAFLD. Importantly, the researchers found that both prolonged sitting time and decreased physical activity level were independently associated with increasing prevalence of NAFLD. Remarkably, these associations were also observed in patients with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 23.
