{
  "abstract": "BACKGROUNDSedentary behaviour independently contributes to cardiovascular disease risk. In healthy adults, prolonged uninterrupted sitting acutely elevates blood pressure, whereas light-activity breaks attenuate this response. Whether such strategies confer similar benefits in high-risk populations, such as chronic stroke survivors, remains unanswered.\n\nOBJECTIVESTo determine whether non-ambulatory, seated heel-raise interruptions every 10 minutes would attenuate central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) during 3 hours of prolonged sitting in individuals with chronic stroke. We hypothesized that the experimental (heel-raise interruption) condition (EXP) would significantly mitigate the cSBPresponse relative to uninterrupted sitting (CON).\n\nMETHODSUsing a randomized crossover design, 15 chronic stroke patients (69.3 {+/-} 10.8 y; 10 male) completed two 3-hour conditions: CON and EXP (10 seated bi-lateral heel raises at 1 rep{middle dot}s-{superscript 1} every 10 minutes). Central and peripheral blood pressures were assessed pre- and post-each condition using the SphygmoCor XCEL. Condition x Time interactions were tested using repeated-measures ANOVA.\n\nRESULTSThe primary hypothesis was confirmed: a significant Condition x Time interaction was detected for cSBP (p < 0.05; p{superscript 2} = 0.28), with EXP eliciting a smaller increase than CON (5.6 mmHg [-6.4, 17.6] vs. 9.6 mmHg [-2.4, 21.6]).\n\nCONCLUSIONSHeel-raise interruptions every 10 minutes attenuate the cSBP response to prolonged sitting in chronic stroke patients and reduce cardiac workload. Frequent, non-ambulatory activity breaks represent a practical secondary prevention strategy for this population, though higher intensity or frequency may be required to fully protect vascular function.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Southampton"
  ],
  "article_type": "PUBLISHAHEADOFPRINT",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "J. Faulkner"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Lambrick"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Fryer"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. Stone"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Hannah"
    },
    {
      "name": "N. Hudson"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Stoner"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Mitchelmore"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/51f45pzcpd49a.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083v1.full",
  "id": "51f45pzcpd49a",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "medrxiv",
      "cardiovascular medicine"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2737|Physical Activity and Health"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7211971574",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/51f45pzcpd49a.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:57Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083",
      "source": "medrxiv",
      "url": "https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.26362083v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "medrxiv:cardiovascular medicine",
      "subfield": "cardiovascular"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Effects of Uninterrupted and Interrupted Sitting on Central Blood Pressure in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Randomized Crossover Trial",
  "title_text": "Effects of Uninterrupted and Interrupted Sitting on Central Blood Pressure in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Randomized Crossover Trial",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:57Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/51f45pzcpd49a",
  "venue": "medRxiv",
  "versions": []
}