Review and comparison of new sedentary behaviour guidelines in adults and older adults for the United States, Canada, and the World Health Organization

Purpose: To provide an overview, comparison, and discussion of recently released public health guidelines for sedentary behaviour by the United States, Canada, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Description: Sedentary behaviour (i.e., seated/reclining posture with low energy expenditure) has emerged as an important public health target and evidence on its relationship with mortality and other important health outcomes is rapidly accumulating. Sedentary behaviour guidelines have now been released by several countries targeting children and adolescents, and to a lesser extent adults and older adults. Most recently, guideline committees in the United States, Canada, and for the WHO have conducted comprehensive reviews to synthesize the evidence on sedentary behaviour and health and generated new or updated guidelines on sedentary behaviour for adults and older adults. Despite being derived from a similar evidence base, guideline statements differ for these governing bodies in important ways. This symposium will highlight the processes each of these committees followed and how these processes led to similarities and differences in the resultant guideline statements. A robust discussion will follow on the research gaps that have emerged and how these gaps can be addressed by the scientific community. Dr. Emmanual Stamatakis, University of Sydney (Chair/Discussant), Title: Guideline development processes for sedentary behaviour. Description: Dr. Stamatakis will provide introductory comments on the importance of national and international guidelines for public policy and the need to contextualize evidence for individual country environments. Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Title: Elements of Sedentary Behaviour in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition. Description: Dr. Katzmarzyk will provide an overview of the sedentary behaviour elements of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition (2018). Dr. Travis Saunders, University of Prince Edward Island. Title: Sedentary behaviour guidelines in Canada: An integral component of 24-hour movement guidelines. Description: Dr. Saunders will provide an overview of the sedentary behaviour guidelines development process for the 2020 Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults and Older Adults. Dr. Matthew Buman, Arizona State University. Title: Updating evidence and crafting stand-alone sedentary behaviour guidelines for the WHO. Description: Dr. Buman will provide an overview of the sedentary behaviour guidelines development process for the 2020 WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour for Children and Adolescents, Adults and Older Adults. Results: Several important scientific issues had considerable bearing on the formation of sedentary behaviour guideline statements by these guidelines committees, including but not limited to: (a) definitions of sedentary behaviour and its bearing on measurement in reviewed evidence; (b) dose-response evidence for sedentary behaviour and health and the appropriateness of quantitative guidelines, evidence on total sedentary time v. patterns of sedentary time (i.e., ‘breaks’), and (c) knowledge translation, communication, and inclusivity considerations in how guideline statements are crafted and communicated to various stakeholders. Conclusions: National and international public health guideline statements play an important role in shaping public policy, and the evidence on sedentary behaviour and health is rapidly accumulating. A deliberate and coordinated effort is needed to address important research gaps that will build greater international consensus on how to optimally reduce health risks through limiting sedentary time.

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