A Scoping Review of Acute Sedentary Behaviour Studies of People with Spinal Cord Injury

People with spinal cord injuries are often less physically active than others and spend more time sitting. This review looks at existing studies to understand how sitting for long periods affects this population, focusing on short-term effects. The review found that studies on sedentary behavior in people with SCI are varied, with different ways of measuring sitting and different outcomes studied, such as physiological (e.g., blood pressure), behavioral (sitting time), and psychological (well-being). Current research is limited, making it hard to draw firm conclusions about how sitting affects people with SCI. More research is needed to define sedentary behavior in this group and to determine how to best reduce and interrupt it.

• 1
  Interrupting sitting improved postprandial glucose and positive affect, but did not significantly improve blood pressure, insulin, or triglycerides.
• 2
  Participants engaged in 1.6 to 12.2 hours of sedentary behavior per day, with average uninterrupted wheelchair sitting bouts lasting 2.3 hours.
• 3
  The study reported a significant decrease in SB from discharge (12.2 h/day) to six months (11.0 h/day; −1.1 h/day, p < 0.001) and 12 months post-discharge (11.1 h/day; −1.0 h/day, p < 0.001).