Seven-plus hours of daily sedentary time and the subsequent risk of breast cancer: Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study

This study aimed to investigate the association between daily sedentary time and the risk of breast cancer (BC) in a large Japanese population. The participants were 36,023 women aged 35-69 years from the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for BC incidence in relation to time spent sedentarily (categorical variables: <7 and >= 7 hours/day [h/d]). Additionally, the associations of BC incidence to the joint effect of sedentary time with each component of physical activity, such as leisure-time metabolic equivalents (METs), frequency of leisure-time physical activity, and daily walking time, were examined. During 315,189 person-years of follow-up, 554 incident cases of BC were identified. When compared to participants who spent <7 h/d sedentary, those who spent >= 7 h/d sedentary have a significantly higher risk of BC (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.07-1.71). The corresponding HRs among participants who spent >= 7 h/d sedentary with more physical activity, such as >= 1 h/d for leisure-time METs, >= 3 days/week of leisure-time physical activity, and >= 1 h/d of daily walking were 1.58 (95% CI, 1.11-2.25), 1.77 (95% CI, 1.20-2.61), and 1.42 (95% CI, 1.10-1.83), respectively, compared with those who spent <7 h/d sedentary. This study found that spending >= 7 h/d of sedentary time is associated with the risk of BC. Neither leisure-time physical activity nor walking had a BC-preventive effect in those with >= 7 h/d of sedentary time.