A systematic review of randomised trials asked which characteristics of an activity bout — frequency, duration, intensity — are associated with cardiometabolic improvement when used to interrupt prolonged sitting.
The framing is the useful part for clinic. Advice to patients is usually given as a weekly total, which is the number a sedentary desk-bound patient is least able to act on. Asking instead how often they get up, and for how long, converts the same advice into something that fits a working day.
It is worth being honest that this literature is heterogeneous and the trials are mostly short and small. The pearl is in the question you ask, not in a prescription of minutes.
- The review looked at bout frequency, duration and intensity rather than weekly totals.
- Interrupting sitting is a separate lever from meeting an activity target.
Why it matters
It turns an instruction most patients cannot follow into one they can start the same afternoon.
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