We all know by now that traveling by airline puts you at risk for a deep venous thrombosis, something more commonly know as "Economy Class Syndrome".  A new study in New Zealand suggests that any kind of seated immobility puts people at risk for a pulmonary embolism. Whether it is a truck driver, a call center worker or just an elderly person who sits for extended periods, say, in a nursing home.

The study was made by K. Perrin, Al Aldington and R Beasley at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand.  It was designed to determine whether people that sit for prolonged periods are at risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE).  Interviews were conducted with patients aged less than 65 which attended an outpatient VTE clinic following hospital admission for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). 

Seated immobility was identified as a risk factor in in the 4 week period prior to the onset of symptoms, the subject had been seated for 8 hours or more per day, 3 hours or more at a time without getting up, or 12 hours or more and 1 hour or mora at a time without getting up.

Results:

Prolonged seated immobility at work occurred in 34% of cases and seated mobility secondary to prolonged air travel greater than 8 hours was identified in 21% of cases.
Also, of the 34% of patients 29% of those worked in the IT industry, 19% in management and 9.5% were taxi drivers.  Seated immobility as a result of either work or travel accounted for nearly half of all cases.

It was concluded that seated immobility may represent an important independent risk factor for VTE.