Acute sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease research: standardizing the methodological posture

Sedentary behavior has been identified as an independent predictor of future cardiovascular disease risk and all-cause mortality. To explain this association, a growing body of literature has sought to investigate the physiological underpinnings of this association with the goal of developing a biologically plausible model. In time, this biologically plausible model can be tested, and effective, translatable public health guidelines can be developed. However, in order to ensure that evidence across studies can be effectively synthesized, it is necessary to ensure their congruency and comparability. Whilst there are several key factors that should be considered and controlled across prolonged sitting studies, one pertinent issue is that of participant posture. There is currently a discourse within the literature regarding the posture that cardiovascular assessments are performed in and rest periods between posture transitions and subsequent measures. This perspectives piece makes the case for standardizing approaches across the research area and offers practical recommendations for future work.