Sitting for prolonged periods of time may be as dangerous to a person's health as smoking, researchers in Northern Ireland have claimed.

According to the team from Queen's University Belfast, it is now thought that prolonged sitting increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even premature death.

"Levels of sedentary behaviour increase as we age, which poses a significant threat to the health of our population. One of the biggest threats to health is the amount of time spent sitting. On average people spend over nine hours, or up to 80% of their waking day, sitting down," explained Dr Mark Tully of Queens.

The researchers are part of a European consortium, which has received a multi-million euro grant from the European Commission to help develop innovative ways to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in older adults.

The four year-study, which also involves researchers from Scotland, France, Germany, Spain and Denmark, will see the Belfast team develop new ways of helping people over the age of 65 to become more active. These will then be tested on 1,300 people in four European countries.

"Public health scientists have recognised the need to develop effective interventions to address the high levels of inactivity across ages, with sitting regarded as ‘the new smoking'," Dr Tully commented.

Researchers at Queens have previously found that mothers who sit more during their pregnancies are more likely to have heavier babies, while men who sit more at work have poorer kidney function.

"During this study we hope to be able to identify effective methods to help our ageing society make positive lifestyle changes in order to improve their health and wellbeing. This programme will then be available for delivery through the health system in each of the (EU) member countries," Dr Tully said.

In the meantime, he suggested some ways that people can be more active at work, including height adjustable desks and treadmill desks, which allow people to alternate between sitting and standing/moving.