Research

Mixed

High levels of sedentary behavior are NOT associated with an increased risk of breast, rectal, ovarian, prostate, stomach, esophageal, testicular, renal cell, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancers.

While high sedentary behavior is linked to colon, endometrial, and lung cancers, it does not appear to increase the risk of breast, prostate, ovarian, or other cancers. However, reducing sedentary time is still beneficial for overall health and may help mitigate the risks for the cancers that are associated with it.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Sedentary behavior was unrelated to cancers of the breast, rectum, ovaries, prostate, stomach, esophagus, testes, renal cell, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Daniela Schmid et al. · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2014

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 43 observational studies with large sample size, providing strong evidence for the lack of association.

Source

Television Viewing and Time Spent Sedentary in Relation to Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis

Daniela Schmid et al. · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2014

DOI 10.1093/jnci/dju098

Meta-analysis · 43 studiesCited 361×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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