Associations between domains of sedentary behavior, well-being, and quality of life – a cross-sectional study

The importance of reducing sedentary behavior (SB) in the prevention of mortality and chronic and mental diseases is scientifically well grounded, but SB can be accumulated in diverse domains of life, such as leisure-time SB, transport between home/work/school when sitting (transport-related SB), or in occupational settings such as working or studying (occupational SB), and the associations for each domain of SB with well-being measures and quality of life are still underexplored from a positive perspective. Through a cross-sectional investigation, we collected data from 584 participants who completed a questionnaire throughout November 2021 and with Spearman correlation test, analysed the associations between SB in three different domains with psychological well-being, satisfaction with life, and quality of life. Our results indicated that after adjustment for physical activity, sex, body mass index, smoking history, chronic disease status, financial perception, quality/duration of sleep and university group, in younger adults (18 to 24 years old), leisure-time SB was negatively related to psychological well-being (rho = -0.255; p = 0.008), and in adults (25 to 64 years old), occupational SB was negatively related to satisfaction with life (rho = -0.257; p <.001) and the mental component of quality of life (rho = -0.163; p = 0.027). Our findings highlight the idea that not all SB is built the same and that future strategies to reduce SB from people’s lives must target specific domains of SB according to the age group when aiming to improve well-being and quality of life.