SEDENTARY BEHAVIOUR
Definition
Sedentary behaviour was defined as sitting or lying down for various activities, including time spent sitting at work, and time spent sitting while using computers, watching television, and for other leisure activities.
Sedentary behaviour questions asked about the concept of a ‘usual day’ to define the timeframe for work/week days rather than referring to the last week.
Population
Information was obtained for persons aged 15 years and over in the 2014-15 NHS.
Methodology
Information about sedentary behaviour is based on a sample of 15,396 people aged 15 years and over.
Whether Met Current Guidelines (Released in 2014)
Data on sedentary behaviour was collected to provide national estimates in order to report against Australia's Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for particular age groups.
Australia’s Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Young People (13 -17 years)
The current Australia's Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Young People (13-17 years) recommend:
- To reduce health risks, young people aged 13–17 years should minimise the time they spend being sedentary every day. To achieve this:
- Limit use of electronic media for entertainment (e.g. television, seated electronic games and computer use) to no more than two hours a day – lower levels are associated with reduced health risks.
- Break up long periods of sitting as often as possible.
Australia's Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Adults (18-64 years)
The current
Australia’s Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Adults (18-64 years) recommend:
- Minimise the amount of time spent in prolonged sitting.
- Break up long periods of sitting as often as possible.
The 2014-15 NHS collected sedentary behaviour data, via the Exercise module and included time spent::
- Sitting at work on a usual day
- Sitting to watch TV or use a computer for leisure on a usual work/week day
- Sitting for leisure on a usual work/week day.
Respondents were asked the following questions:
- What they do on a typical work day (respondents who are currently employed)
- Amount of time they spend sitting at work on a usual work day, including meal and snack breaks and time spent sitting at a desk (respondents who are employed full-time (i.e. 35 hours or more))
- Amount of time they usually spend sitting while watching television or using a computer before and after work (respondents who are employed full-time (i.e. 35 hours or more))
- Amount of time they usually spend sitting while watching television or using a computer on a usual work/week day (respondents who are not currently employed or not employed full-time)
- Amount of time they spend sitting in other leisure time on a usual work/week day.
Data Items
The questionnaire, data items and related output categories for this topic are available in pdf/Excel spreadsheet format from the
Downloads page of this product.
Interpretation
Points to be considered in interpreting data for this topic include the following:
- Sedentary data are not available separately for time spent in leisure on a usual work/week day due to the potential overlap of responses (e.g. persons may have reported the same activity for 'time spent sitting at the computer' and 'time spent sitting in other leisure time').
- Sedentary behaviour data collected in this section have not contributed to physical activity/exercise level calculations.
Comparability with 2011-12
2014-15 NHS Sedentary behaviour data were collected with the same methodology and questions used in the 2011-12 NHS, and are considered directly comparable between the 2011-12 and 2014-15 NHS.
| Due to different time-frame definitions and concepts collected, sedentary data collected in the 2011-12 NNPAS is not considered comparable to the 2014-15 NHS or previous cycles. |
The 2011-12 NNPAS collected the following Sedentary Behaviour data:
- Sedentary Behaviour data for children aged 2-17 years focused on screen-based activities. For each day in the last 7 days, data was collected on the time spent sitting or lying down to:
- Watch TV/DVDs
- Play any electronic games
- Use the internet or computer (excluding games) for homework and non-homework purposes (5-17 years only).
- Sedentary Behaviour data for adults aged 18 years and over including time spent in the last week:
- Sitting at work
- Sitting for transport (including waiting for transport)
- Sitting or lying down to watch television or videos
- Sitting or lying down to play electronic games
- Sitting or lying down to use a computer or the internet
- Sitting or lying down to use a phone (including text messages and talking)
- Sitting or lying down to do other social or leisure activities (such as at a barbecue, for meals, at a cinema, etc.).
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