Europe's champion sitter: Sporty Dutch but victim of 'chair use disorder' health and well-being

The Dutch are recognized as a nation of fit giants who jump on their bikes and ride energetically across the flatlands. But they are actually “Europe's sedentary champions”, with their sedentary lifestyles causing thousands of premature deaths, according to a new study.

Health experts are calling for urgent action to halt the spread of so-called “chair use disorder” in Western countries.a report Too much sitting costs the Netherlands €1.2bn (£1bn) a year and leads to 21,000 premature deaths a year from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, according to a paper published on Friday by research organization TNO. It turned out to be connected. Researchers found that being a lawyer is riskier than being a truck driver.

“We are the European champions of sitting,” said cardiologist Leonard Hofstra. Excessive chair use addiction. “Sitting too much is bad for you because it constricts blood flow. When you exercise, thousands of miles of blood vessels in your body produce a substance called nitric oxide, which is one of the healthiest substances imaginable. It dilates blood vessels to increase blood flow, prevents bad cholesterol from worsening, and prevents the formation of clots and inflammation. This is how exercise affects our health. Therefore, this is a very bad thing for us as a country. is.”

A diagram showing which EU countries spend the most time sitting

TNO believes that the culture of sitting in the office is having such a negative impact on workplace accidents that it urges employers to legislate. Take exercise breaks, use standing desks, and hold “walking meetings”.

Researcher Lidewij Renaud said: “The Netherlands and the UK are comparable, but here in the Netherlands 64% of people sit for more than eight hours a day, so almost two-thirds of the population is at risk. ” he said. “This is an individual problem, but it's also a societal problem.”

Unlike the UK, the Netherlands is one of the most sports-minded countries in Europe, so it's not necessarily because there's too little formal exercise. The question is, what do people do with the rest of their time?

“There are guidelines for 30 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous intensity activity. From the World Health OrganizationBut if you're awake for 16 hours, that's only a fraction of your day,” Renaud says. “We are not very conscious of ourselves. How to sit. You're not sitting on your couch, you're watching a streaming service. You're not sitting at the table, you're eating lunch. You're not sitting at a desk, you're working and being productive. It is only in the last 15 years that we have come to this conclusion: Oh my god! – What you do in the other 15 and a half hours of the day matters. ”

As of 2022, workers in the Netherlands were sitting for an average of 8.9 hours a day, more than half of which was during working hours (and an hour of commuting time).Sitters include lawyers, economists, and IT workers outstanding, runs 7.3 hours per day. This is even longer than the truck driver's 7.2 hours.a eurobarometer survey We found that 26% of Dutch people aged 16 and over sit for more than 8.5 hours a day. This is significantly higher than her EU average of 11%. According to TNO, cutting this number by a quarter would prevent 5,200 “sedentary deaths” each year. Englishman methodology.

This problem is related to the prevalence of service industry employment, but appears to have been exacerbated as a result of technology from home to home entertainment, along with increased work from home post-pandemic. Super fast delivery service – Get essentials delivered to your couch.

Earlier this year, the Dutch Sports Council called on the government to get more people on their feet. Eric Schelder, a city councilor and professor of neuropsychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, says exercise also affects the brain. He encourages his students to do three minutes of squats for every 30 minutes of lecture.

“When children sit and play all day at school, [computer] “Playing games at home instead of playing outside is alarming,” he said. “Networks in the brain involved in motor functions largely overlap with networks involved in mathematics and language comprehension. Skipping physical functions has a negative impact on the development of other functions.”