High Impact Practices Student Showcase Spring 2026

The Association Between Sedentary Behavior and Heart Disease Mortality Rates Among Florida Residents.

The Association Between Sedentary Behavior and Heart Disease Mortality Rates Among Florida Residents.

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Course Code

HSC

Course Number

4501

Faculty/Instructor

Dr. Jacob Bleasdale

Faculty/Instructor Email

jacob.bleasdale@ucf.edu

About the Author

I am a 4th year student at the University of Central Florida pursuing a Bachelor of Health Sciences on the Pre-Clinical Track. I am interested about the intersection of preventive medicine and clinical outcomes. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Bleasdale for guidance throughout this research process and for providing the analytical framework used in this ecological study.

Abstract, Summary, or Creative Statement

This research project examines the association between sedentary behavior and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) mortality among Florida residents. As heart disease remains the leading cause of death in Florida, identifying modifiable risk factors is a public health priority. This study utilizes an ecological design to analyze age-adjusted mortality rates across Florida’s 67 counties, correlating them with the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles reported via the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Key findings indicate that sedentary behavior exceeding 10 hours per day is an independent risk factor for heart disease, increasing risk by 8% to 18%, regardless of other physical activity levels. Through this project, I learned the critical importance of "activity breaks" over traditional exercise-only recommendations and gained proficiency in performing correlation analyses using public health data. These findings suggest that public health interventions should prioritize reducing total daily sitting time to effectively combat heart disease mortality.

The link to the project is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaAJFzQMGp8

Keywords

Sedentary Behavior; Coronary Heart Disease; Florida Health Charts; Mortality Rates; Public Health; Preventive Medicine; Ecological Study; Activity Breaks; Cardiovascular Disease.

The Association Between Sedentary Behavior and Heart Disease Mortality Rates Among Florida Residents.


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Accessibility Statement

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