Sitting For Long Time May Double Women’s Risk Of Pulmonary Embolism

The CNN  (7/5, Hudson) “The Chart” blog reported, “Extensive sitting increases women’s risk of pulmonary embolism, finds a new study in the current issue of the British Medical Journal.”

HealthDay  (7/5, Preidt) reported, “The researchers said their study is the first to prove that an inactive lifestyle increases the risk of developing a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when part or all of a blood clot that forms in the deep veins of the legs travels through the bloodstream to the lungs.” The “study included 69,950 female nurses who were followed for 18 years and every two years provided details about their lifestyle habits.”

Medscape  (7/5, Barclay) reported, “There were 268 episodes of incident idiopathic pulmonary embolism during the 18-year study period. Time spent sitting each day was directly associated with risk for idiopathic pulmonary embolism (in combined data, 41/104,720 for the most inactive women compared with 16/14,565 for the least inactive women; P < .001 for trend).” The researchers found that “compared with women who spent the least time sitting, women who spent the most time sitting had more than double the risk for pulmonary embolism (multivariable hazard ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.30 – 4.20). Physical activity was not associated with pulmonary embolism (P = .53 for trend).” WebMD  (7/5, Goodman) also covered the story.