Focusing on Sedentary Behavior in Comprehensive Cardiac Rehabilitation

In recent years, the adverse effects of prolonged sedentary behavior in daily life, so-called ‘sitting too much’, on health have been pointed out. Sedentary behavior is defined as ‘all waking behavior in which the energy expenditure in a sitting, semi-recumbent, or recumbent position is 1.5 metabolic equivalents or less’. Even if a person engages in the level of physical activity recommended in the guidelines, sitting for too long at other times may increase the risk of developing various diseases and death. For patients with cardiovascular disease, a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program that systematically includes not only medical treatment but also exercise therapy, patient education, and disease management is extremely important. Also, differences in sedentary behavior during the acute and recovery phases are known to affect physical function and activities of daily living at the time of hospital discharge. Here, we discuss cardiac rehabilitation that addresses sedentary behavior and review the previous related research.