The effect of uninterrupted and interrupted sitting on vascular function in adults with Long COVID

Hudson, Nick, Scott, Hannah, Husted, Margaret, Fryer, Simon M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0376-0104, Ryan-Stewart, Helen, Rickenbach, Mark and Faulkner, James (2025) The effect of uninterrupted and interrupted sitting on vascular function in adults with Long COVID. Physiological Reports. (In Press)

Text 15058 Hudson et al (2025) The effect of uninterrupted sitting on vascular function.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 24 September 2025. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Acute prolonged sitting increases blood pressure (BP), and arterial stiffness (AS). Both of these may be mitigated via light physical activity (LPA). Whether Long COVID (LC), which partly manifests as vascular sequelae, predisposes a heightened sensitivity to sitting or diminished benefits from its interruption is unknown. The aims of this study were to identify whether individuals with LC: (i) exhibit a worse BP/AS response to uninterrupted sitting, and (ii) a diminished mitigation of BP/AS response to sitting interrupted with LPA, compared to healthy controls. 30 participants with LC and 15 controls completed two-hours of uninterrupted sitting and sitting interrupted with LPA. Central and peripheral systolic and diastolic BP and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) were determined pre and post sitting. Linear mixed-effects models demonstrated no three-way or two-way interactions for any variable. There was a significant main effect of time, with increases in central systolic (MD=3.37 mmHg, SE=0.93mmHg, p <0.001) and central diastolic (MD=3.00mmHg, SE=0.58mmHg, p <0.001) BP. cfPWV was not altered in sitting in either group (MD=0.13m/s, SE =0.09m/s, p = 0.170). Uninterrupted sitting increases BP similarly, but AS is unchanged. Interrupting sitting with LPA did not mitigate sitting induced increase in BP regardless of LC diagnosis.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QP Physiology R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education and Science
Depositing User:	Charlotte Crutchlow
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2025 08:15
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2025 08:30
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15058

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