Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting with Moderate-intensity Walking Improves Attention and Executive Function in Qatari Females

Background: Cultural, environmental and logistical factors promote a sedentary lifestyle within Qatar, particularly for females. Sedentary behaviour is acutely associated with poor cognitive function and fatigue, and chronically may be implicated with cognitive decline (i.e. Alzheimer's disease).

Purpose: To examine the effects of breaking up sitting with short-duration frequent walking bouts on cognitive function and fatigue in Qatari females.

Method: Eleven sedentary (sitting ≥7 h/day) females completed three visits; the first being familiarisation. In a cross-over randomised manner, experimental visits two and three were identical, except participants either remained seated for 5-h (SIT) or interrupted their sitting every 30-min with a 3-min moderate-intensity walk (WALK) on a motorised treadmill. The Computerised Mental Performance Assessment System (COMPASS) assessed cognition at baseline (-15-min), and then at 2.5-h and 5-h into the experimental conditions. Specific COMPASS tasks employed were; serial-3 subtractions (2-min), serial-7 subtractions (2-min), simple reaction time (RT; 50 stimuli), rapid visual information processing [RVIP (5-min)], choice reaction time (CRT; 50 stimuli), and Stroop (60 stimuli); and a visual analogue scale for fatigue (VAS-F) was completed at the same time intervals.

Results: There was a significant condition effect for CRT (f = 26.7, p = 0.007). On average CRT was 101 s (95% CI = -47 to -156 s) quicker in WALK compared to SIT. There was a significant time effect for CRT (f = 15.5, p = 0.01). On average CRT was 134 s slower at 5-h compared to baseline (p = 0.006; 95% CI = -64 to -203 s), and 114 s slower at 5-h compared to 2.5-h (p = 0.01; 95% CI = -44 to -183 s). There was a significant interaction effect for RT in the Stroop incongruent task (f = 10.0, p = 0.03). On average RT was 210 s quicker at 2.5-h in WALK compared to SIT (p = 0.01; 95% CI = -76 to -346 s).

Conclusion: Breaking up prolonged sitting with moderate-intensity walking offers an ecologically valid intervention to enhance some aspects of cognitive function, whilst not affecting fatigue in sedentary Qatari females. Whilst these findings are promising, the long-term effects of breaking up sitting on cognitive function requires testing before population level recommendations can be made.