The association between sedentary behaviour, physical activity and coronary artery disease risk factors in employees at tertiary institute in South Africa

Background Sedentary behaviour has incrementally increased over the past few years. The scientific community recognises this behaviour as a twenty first century disease which reflects the detrimental effects of excessive sitting on several adverse functional and clinical health outcomes, such as chronic disease, in the general adult population. Many evolving contemporary occupations require that employees sit an average of eight hours per day at work stations or office desks, especially when using communication technology. Even after accounting for the self-reported time spent in recommended physical activity, the negative dose-response relationship between time spent in sedentary behaviour and the all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality still remain. Aim: To establish a profile of sedentary behaviour as well as levels of physical activity and coronary artery disease risk factors in employees at a tertiary institute in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Another aim is to determine whether an association exists between the aforementioned variables