This article leaves a lot of unanswered questions for me. Why was the all-cause death rate 20 percentage points higher for women than men? Why did so many men interviewed die compared to women? 21% of men interviewed died in this 14 year period. That seems high - how old were the people interviewed?

Looking only at the all-cause death rate makes me question the validity of these results. Certainly the sample size is good, but what's to say there's not a mix-up of cause and effect? Maybe those sitting for 6+ hours a day are less likely to care about their health. Maybe they're far more likely to be smokers, or obese or whatever.

So is it really that sitting an extra three hours a day is having an adverse affect on our health, or is it all the other factors that are the problem?