Day-of-the-Week and Time-of-the-Day Patterns of Sedentary Behavior in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

Abstract

Purpose Existing sedentary behavior interventions have largely achieved mixed results. Conventionally, interventions have attempted to reduce sedentary behavior using a full-day approach. An alternative strategy may be to target specific periods during the day and/or week. This study examined the day-of-the-week (Monday to Sunday) and time-of-the-day patterns (3-hr and 6-hr periods) of sedentary behavior among U.S. Hispanics/Latinos adults. Methods Participants (n = 12,241) from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), a multi-site community-based prospective cohort study of Hispanic/Latino adults, were studied. Sedentary behavior was assessed for one week using a hip-mounted accelerometer through total sedentary time, sedentary time in bouts ≥60 minutes, and total number of sedentary breaks. The temporal patterns of sedentary behavior metrics were evaluated using linear mixed effect models accounting for HCHS/SOL complex survey design. Results There were statistically significant variations in temporal patterns across day-of-the-week and time-of-the-day periods for all three metrics (p < .001). Adults were more sedentary on weekends than on weekdays, and most sedentary on Sundays. The time-of-the-day patterns had a U-curve pattern wherein adults were most sedentary late at night, became less sedentary throughout the day, reached peak activeness around noon, then gradually became more sedentary into the evening. These patterns were largely robust across seasonality and most sociodemographic characteristics including age, employment status, work shift schedule, acculturation, and field center. Conclusions Our findings suggest that early mornings, evenings, and weekends were the more sedentary periods in this cohort of Hispanic/Latino adults, characterized by higher volumes of sedentary time, higher volumes of time in prolonged sedentary bouts, and fewer number of sedentary breaks than other time periods, highlighting important windows of opportunity to reduce sedentary behavior.