• Takemi Sugiyama, Katrien Wijndaele, Mohammad Javad Koohsari, Stephanie K Tanamas, David W Dunstan, and Neville Owen.
• Centre for Design Innovation, Faculty of Health Arts & Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; School of Population Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: tsugiyama@swin.edu.au.
• Prev Med. 2016 Feb 1; 83: 26-30.

ObjectiveTo examine associations of time spent sitting in cars with markers of cardio-metabolic risk in Australian adults.MethodData were from 2800 participants (age range: 34-65) in the 2011-12 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Self-reported time spent in cars was categorized into four groups: ≤15min/day; >15 to ≤30min/day; >30 to ≤60min/day; and >60min/day. Markers of cardio-metabolic risk were body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL (high-density lipoprotein)-cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, 2-h plasma glucose, a clustered cardio-metabolic risk score, and having the metabolic syndrome or not. Multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses examined associations of car time with each cardio-metabolic risk outcome, adjusting for socio-demographic and behavioral variables and medication use for blood pressure and cholesterol/triglycerides.ResultsCompared to spending 15min/day or less in cars, spending more than 1h/day in cars was significantly associated with higher BMI, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, and clustered cardio-metabolic risk, after adjusting for socio-demographic attributes and potentially relevant behaviors including leisure-time physical activity and dietary intake. Gender interactions showed car time to be associated with higher BMI in men only.ConclusionsProlonged time spent sitting in cars, in particular over 1h/day, was associated with higher total and central adiposity and a more-adverse cardio-metabolic risk profile. Further studies, ideally using objective measures of sitting time in cars and prospective designs, are needed to confirm the impact of car use on cardio-metabolic disease risk.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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