BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Disease
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1610010
Daily Sitting Time and Past-Year Falls in Japanese Adults: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Analysis
Provisionally accepted
SHIGEKAZU UKAWA1*
Yusuke Kato2Yonggeun Lee3Masaaki Sugiyama1Hiroko Saito4Kazuoki Ohara5Kazuhiko Mori1- 1Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
- 2Kinjo Gakuin University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
- 3The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tōkyō, Japan
- 4Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
- 5Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
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Background: Sedentary behavior is a potentially modifiable risk factor for falls, yet the sitting time threshold linked to elevated fall risk remains unclear, particularly in Asian populations. Objective: This study aimed (1) to examine the association between dichotomized daily sitting time and falls in the past year, and (2) to determine an optimal threshold above which the odds of falls significantly increase. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2022 in two aging Japanese communities. Data were collected from 1,331 adults (mean age 68.3 ± 15.2 years; 52.1% women) via self-administered questionnaires. The exposure was self-reported daily sitting time from the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire, and the outcome was at least one fall in the past year. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis identified the optimal threshold, and logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs). Results: Among 1,331 adults, 20.2% reported ≥1 fall in the past year. ROC analysis identified 4.08 hours/day as the optimal cutoff (AUC = 0.52). In adjusted models, sitting ≥4.08 hours/day was associated with higher odds of falls (crude OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.09–1.91; adjusted OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.01–1.81). Continuous sitting time was also positively associated with falls. Conclusion: Daily sitting time of about 4 hours or more was linked to increased odds of past-year falls, but its discriminatory ability was minimal (AUC ≈ 0.5). Adding measures such as muscle strength and balance may improve prediction, and this cutoff could serve as a population-level marker when combined with other risk indicators.
Keywords: falls, sedentary behavior, Sitting time, ROC Curve, Japan, Cross-sectional study
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 UKAWA, Kato, Lee, Sugiyama, Saito, Ohara and Mori. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: SHIGEKAZU UKAWA, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan
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