Association Between Objectively-Measured Sedentary Time And Self-Reported Prescription Medications In Adults: A Pilot Study

Prescription medication use and extended sedentary time are independently related to poor health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, metabolic syndrome, mortality). To date, the relationship between sedentary time and prescription medication use has not been investigated. Historically, survey methods have been used to obtain estimates of total sedentary time, however, recent use of wearable activity monitors avoids self-report bias and affords more characteristics of sedentary time that may be factors in health outcomes (e.g., number and duration of sedentary episodes and duration of breaks between sedentary episodes). PURPOSE: The aims of this pilot study were to 1.) describe sedentary time characteristics of the sample and 2.) examine the association between objectively-measured sedentary time and self-reported prescription medication use in adults. METHODS: Adults (n = 12) were asked to wear an activity monitor continuously on their right hip for seven days while manually recording sleep times and instances of activity monitor removal. Participants were also asked to report the number and type of medications they were currently prescribed. The dependent variable was dichotomized into zero prescribed medications and > 0 prescribed medications. The Chi-square statistic was used to test for independence between average minutes of sedentary time per day and prescription medication use. RESULTS: Descriptive characteristics are shown in Table 1. Results of the Chi-square analysis revealed there was not a statistically significant association between sedentary time and prescription medication use (P = 0.558, Fisher’s exact test). CONCLUSION: With this small sample, our findings suggest sedentary time may not be associated with prescription medication use in adults. - Table 1. Participant and Sedentary Time Characteristics Average and Less Sedentary Time (n = 5) Greater than Average Sedentary Time (n = 7) Female (%) 40% 71% Prescribed Medications (%) 40% 71% Age (years) 34.5 ± 15.2 32.5 ± 8.2 BMI (kg/m 2 ) 24.8 ± 2.2 25.7 ± 5.3 Waist circumference (in) 33.8 ± 4.3 31.9 ± 4.0 Sedentary time per day (min) 601.6 ± 47.4 725.0 ± 41.6 Number of breaks in sedentary behavior per day 17.6 ± 1.4 20.1 ± 2.5 Number of sedentary episodes per day 18.6 ± 1.4 21.1 ± 2.5 Duration of sedentary episodes per day (min) 22.0 ± 2.0 25.8 ± 4.7 All values mean ± standard deviation unless stated otherwise.