L18: Sedentary behaviour at Work Flashcards
What is sedentary behaviour?
Any waking behaviour characterized by an energy expenditure ≤1.5 METs while in a sitting or reclining position
How much time do we spend sitting?
Adults report spending 50-60% of their day in sedentary pursuits accumulated in the domains of work, travel and leisure time. Office workers are at greatest risk of sedentary behaviour
Why are we sitting more? (4)
- Mechanisation of work and leisure activities
- Introduction of computers means we are ‘chained’ to our desks to work
- Industrialisation of home duties – washing machines, dishwashers
- Increasing population – have to drive / commute longer to work
At risk workers – office workers, transport drivers (truck, bus, taxi), mechanised trades (crane and dozer operators)
Why is prolonged sitting at work a problem? What is the sitting disease?
- Greater risk of mortality
- “long hours sitting are causing severe musculoskeletal problems”
What is high sedentary/sitting time associated with (7)?
- 112% increase risk of Diabetes
- 147% increase risk of Cardiovascular events
- 90% increase risk of death due to cardiovascular events
- 49% increase in over all mortality
- Colon cancer
- Weight gain & development of obesity
- Musculoskeletal symptoms
Prolonged sitting is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.
What are 3 hierachy levels as strategies to limit harmful effects of prolonged sitting?
Aim for frequent changes between sitting and standing
Becoming more active = Increase dynamic sitting workplace
What are the 4 benefits of work in standing?
- Higher caloric expenditure
- Reduced BMI
- Improved metabolic health
- Improved cardiovascular health
What are 12 strategies to break up prolonged sitting in the work place? (encourage movement)
Postural variation
- stand and take a break from your desk every 30 minutes
- use stairs and not lifts
- use separately located bins and /printers
- Mini bin –> encourage physical activity (go and empty the bin)
- take standing breaks in long sitting meetings
- stand to greet a visitor and for phone calls
- walk to colleagues desk instead of phoning or emailing
- have standing and / or walking meetings
- use headsets / speaker during teleconferencing enabling standing
- eat your lunch away from your desk
- stand at the back of the room during presentations
- Water bottle on desk –> more frequent toilet breaks (increase physical activity)
What are 5 problems with sit-stand desks (workstations)?
- Lack of known guidelines for sitstand transitions
- Prolonged standing replaced by prolonged sitting
- Compliance an issue
- Poor posture can be adopted in standing
- Workstation not adjusted between postures
Risk of developing gluteal tendinopathy from prolonged standing
What is the compliance with sit-stand desks? Why (3 reasons for low utilisation? How does this increase (2)?
60% of people used them less than once a month and only 20% used them frequently
- not bother to use the function,
- small standing table surface
- difficulty getting comfortable in the standing position
- With education & motivation
- Those receiving desk due to physical discomfort most motivated
What does the set up for sitting workstation VS standing work station look like?
What are 8 eveidence for sit-stand workstations as part of the solution?
- Reduce Low back pain
- Impact of sit-stand workstations on neck pain is mixed
- On average, burn an extra 0.5-2 kcal per minute vs sitting still
- Induce postural variation
- Reduced time spent sitting by ~57’/day 3-12 mths after implementation
- Increased time spent standing
- Reduce cardio-metabolic markers
- BUT, the effects are small, greater effects with education and behavioural changes
What is evidence from sit stand workstations?
- Active workstations (eg treadmill desks or cycling desks) had unclear or inconsistent effects on sitting time
- no significant effects for implementing walking strategies on workplace sitting time at short-term or medium term
- Short breaks (1-2’ every half hour) reduced time spent sitting at work on average by 40’ per day compared to long breaks (two 15-minute breaks per workday) at short-term follow-up.
- Providing information, feedback, counselling, or all of these resulted in no significant change in time spent sitting at work at short-term
- Computer prompts combined with information resulted in no significant change in sitting time at work at short-term follow-up
- Computer prompts with instruction to stand reduced sitting at work on average by 14’ per day
What are the 3 harms associated with prolonged standing?
- General fatigue
- Varicose Veins and risk of CVD
- Musculoskeletal discomfort – predominantly back and legs
What are 3 characteristics of general fatigue in standing?
- Heart rate is higher during standing than sitting
- Standing more tiring as it requires ~20% more energy thansitting
- Thigh muscle activity during standing has been reported to be 2.5 times the level during sitting
Whta is the energy expenditure in sit VS stand?
- Standing performing clerical work increased EE 7.5 kcal/h over sitting in an office chair;
- not likely to promote weight loss but may help to slow weight gain or weight regain
What are 2 characteristics of energy expenditure in standing?
- It would take over 2 h of standing to burn as much energy as 30 min of walking.
- It would take nearly 6 h of standing to burn as much energy as 30 min of running.
What are 2 main associations between standing and health/disease?
- Significant relationships between amount of standing at work & atherosclerotic progression
- Atherosclerotic changes in the carotid arteries over 4 years
- Significant relationship between prolonged standing at work and varicose veins
- Varicose veins with prolonged standing in 2165 workers
- Hospitalization for Varicose veins in workers standing or walking at least 75% of their time at work
- 12 years of follow up, relative risk was 1.78