A recent study published in Circulation found that a three-month intervention aimed at reducing sedentary behavior and increasing standing time during the workday did not lower blood pressure (BP) or arterial stiffness among desk workers with untreated elevated or high BP.
The study, led by Dr. Bethany Barone Gibbs, chair and associate professor at the West Virginia School of Public Health, highlights the ongoing concern about the relationship between prolonged sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
“The direct relationship between prolonged sedentary behavior and CVD risk has led to the hypothesis that its acute negative effects may accumulate, resulting in high BP and eventually CVD,” Gibbs and her colleagues stated. However, they noted that previous randomized clinical trials on sedentary behavior reduction have produced inconclusive results, particularly for individuals with high BP.
To investigate this further, the RESET-BP study was conducted. This parallel-arm, randomized clinical trial involved 271 desk workers aged 21 to 65 years, with systolic BP ranging from 120 mm Hg to 159 mm Hg or diastolic BP from 80 mm Hg to 99 mm Hg. All participants were not on antihypertensive medications and reported fewer than 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week.
Participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either a three-month intervention group (136 participants) or a no-contact control group (135 participants). The intervention focused on reducing sedentary time by promoting standing and light-intensity activities such as walking and resistance exercises.
To measure the effectiveness of the intervention, participants wore accelerometers to track their sedentary behavior and physical activity at baseline and after three months. The primary outcome was clinic-based resting systolic BP, while secondary outcomes included diastolic BP, 24-hour ambulatory BP, and pulse wave velocity.
Results showed that participants in the intervention group reduced their sedentary time by an average of 1.15 hours per day (P < .0001), increased all-day standing by 0.94 hours (P < .0001), and stepped more, averaging an additional 5.4 minutes per day (P < .05) compared to the control group.
Despite these changes, both groups experienced a decrease in resting systolic BP; however, there was no significant difference between the two groups after three months (–0.22 mm Hg). Changes in resting diastolic BP (0.13 mm Hg) and ambulatory BP were also similar across both groups. Additionally, pulse wave velocity showed no significant intervention effects.
Among all participants, reductions in sedentary behavior during work hours were linked to decreases in diastolic BP (r = 0.15; P = .0165) but also associated with increases in carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (r = –0.19; P = .0059). Interestingly, increases in standing during work hours correlated with higher pulse wave velocity (r = 0.17; P = .0111), while standing during non-work hours was associated with lower pulse wave velocity (r = –0.14; P = .0379).
“Overall, our findings indicate that reducing sedentary behavior by approximately one hour each day through standing at work is not an effective non-pharmacologic strategy for lowering BP or improving arterial stiffness,” the researchers concluded.
They acknowledged several limitations in their study, including concerns about external validity related to participant characteristics.
The researchers called for further studies involving different populations—such as older individuals or those with higher BP—to explore the cardiovascular effects of greater reductions in sedentary behavior and alternative activities beyond standing at a desk.
This study adds to the ongoing conversation about the health impacts of sedentary lifestyles and underscores the need for more targeted interventions for managing blood pressure among desk workers.
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