The impact of digital technology development on sitting time across Europe

Abstract

Digital technology development has been proposed to explain higher levels of sedentary behaviour; but this has not yet been confirmed. Thus, here we evaluated the impact of digital development on sedentary behaviour using two metrics: digital country development and e-devices ownership from the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and the Eurobarometer 88.4 cross-sectional survey with 28,031 participants ≥ 15 years old. From an environmental macro perspective, at the national level, a simple linear regression has been performed between the DESI and mean sitting time per country. To develop a micro approach to this phenomenon, binomial logistic regression models have been run among individual e-devices ownership and the daily amount of time spent sitting (≤3.5 h/day, > 4.5 h/day). Digital country development is positively related to sitting time, whereas the ownership of e-device (either DVD player, CD player, desk computer, laptop, and Internet connection) was associated with a higher sitting time (>4.5 h/day) in the overall population, with slight differences by gender. While further research is needed to understand the effect of digitalization on sedentary behaviour throughout time, here we document how it is associated with higher sitting time, as assessed through both macro and micro approaches.