The impact of uninterrupted sitting on central and peripheral cardiovascular function in pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women

Independently, both prolonged uninterrupted sitting and the onset of menopause negatively impact markers of cardiovascular risk. Whether their combination augment these responses additively remains unknown. This study assessed whether prolonged uninterrupted sitting causes greater central and peripheral cardiovascular dysfunction in post-menopausal women compared to pre-menopausal women. To address this, 23 healthy women (13 pre-menopausal [43.77 ± 4.30 years] and 10 post-menopausal [57.20 ± 8.55 years]) sat uninterrupted for 2-h. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV), pulse wave analysis (PWA), lower limb venous pooling (HHb), and calf circumference were assessed pre-and post-sitting using general linear mixed models, with age as a covariate. Changes in MAP over time (both between and within groups) was assessed using a two-way repeated-measures-ANOVA. There were no significant interactions for any outcome measures. However, for cf-PWV, there was a significant main effect of group (Δ = 0.854 ± 0.354 m s⁻¹; p = 0.026, ηp² = 0.707). For PWA, only heart rate (HR) and pressure forwards (Pf) showed significant main effects 13 of time [Δ = 6 ± 1 bts-min⁻¹, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.861] and group [Δ = 3.893 ± 1.450 mmHg, p = 0.016, ηp² = 0.271], respectively. Both HHb (Δ = 2.737 ± 0.952, p = 0.009, ηp² = 0.742) and calf circumference (Δ = 0.812 ± 0.128 cm, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.863) significantly increased over time. Whilst post-menopausal women demonstrated greater overall arterial stiffness (increased cf-PWV at baseline), there was no difference in cardiovascular response (central or peripheral) to 2-h of prolonged sitting between the pre- and post-menopausal women. Graphical abstract: (Figure presented.)