Association between sedentary behavior, obesity and hypertension in public school teachers

Abstract

The present study aimed to verify the prevalence and association of sedentary behavior and its breaks with obesity and cardiovascular risk factors in teaching professionals. The sample was composed by 245 public school teachers (186 women and 59 men), with a mean age of 45 years. Sedentary behavior was evaluated by self-reported screen time in different devices (television, computer, cellphone/tablet), and sedentary breaks at work and leisure were assessed by a Likert scale (never, rarely, sometimes, often, always). Cardiovascular risk factors (overweight/obesity, abdominal obesity, blood pressure, and heart rate) were objectively collected by trained individuals in the work environment of the teachers. Logistic Binary Regression models were adjusted for confounding factors (age, sex, and socioeconomic status). The prevalence of sedentary behavior was 55.3% in the sample. High sedentary behavior was associated to abdominal obesity (OR=2.21[CI=1.23-3.97]). No association was observed between sedentary breaks at work and independent variables, however teachers with high sedentary breaks at leisure time were less likely to present high blood pressure (OR=0.58[CI=0.32-0.98]). In conclusion, high sedentary behavior was associated with abdominal obesity, and high sedentary breaks in leisure time were associated to lower chances of high blood pressure among public school teachers.

Prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Systematic review

“…[13] Several studies have recorded a high prevalence of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, respiratory disorders and other chronic non-communicable diseases in teachers. [23–25] Considering that obesity, diabetes and hypertension are associated with higher mortality due to COVID-19, when resuming classes, teachers with chronic diseases may be more afraid that, if infected, they could see more harmful effects. This could justify the greater anxiety among this group.…”

Associations of Sedentary Time with Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

“…The included articles were published between 2011 and 2020. The populations were from Australia [21], Brazil [23,26,[40][41][42], Canada [43], Denmark [20,22], Finland [25], Spain [44], the United Kingdom [24], and Sweden [18]. The sample sizes of the included articles ranged from 35 [26] to 46,832 [18].…”

“…The sample sizes of the included articles ranged from 35 [26] to 46,832 [18]. One article included only male participants [26], and the remaining included both sexes and analyzed them either together [20,[22][23][24][40][41][42][43][44] or separately [18,21,25]. To measure ST, five articles utilized self-report instruments [18,21,26,40,44] and eight used objective devices [20,[22][23][24][25][41][42][43].…”

“…One article included only male participants [26], and the remaining included both sexes and analyzed them either together [20,[22][23][24][40][41][42][43][44] or separately [18,21,25]. To measure ST, five articles utilized self-report instruments [18,21,26,40,44] and eight used objective devices [20,[22][23][24][25][41][42][43]. Furthermore, the included studies in the meta-analysis reported either a single estimate [23,24,26], multiple within-subject estimates [20][21][22], or multiple subgroup estimates [18,21,25].…”

“…Studies typically had lower scores due to cross-sectional designs, failure to use a thigh-based accelerometer to measure ST, and failure to measure ST at more than one timepoint (Supplementary Table S1). Regarding outcomes (Table 2), five articles measured only HR [18,21,40,43,44], six measured only HRV [20,23,24,26,41,42], and two measured both HR and HRV [22,25]. HR and/or HRV were measured using ECG [20,22,24], HR monitors [23,25,26,41,42], or oscillometers (HR only) [18,40,43]; two studies did not report the device used [21,44].…”