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Office sitting made less sedentary: A future-forward approach to reducing physical inactivity at work
Citation
Chia, M., Chen, B., & Suppiah, H. T. (2015). Office sitting made less sedentary: A future-forward approach to reducing physical inactivity at work. Montenegrin Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 4(2), 5-10. http://www.mjssm.me/clanci/MJSSM_Sept_2015_Chia.pdf
Abstract
Excessive sitting is detrimentally associated with major lifestyle diseases. Attempts at intervening the prolonged sitting time at work offer possibilities for a healthier lifestyle. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of using a seat-cycle (S-C) compared to the office-chair (O-C) in reducing prolonged sitting in the office. Twenty-one (mean age = 48±12.4 years) office workers (10 men and 11 women; mean BMI = 24.1±4.6 kg/m͘²) volunteered to participate in an 11-week crossover design study. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups- each started with different conditions: the office-chair (O-C) or the seatcycle (S-C) intervention for 4 weeks with a 2-week ‘washout’ period in-between before switching over. Self-reported sleep quality, lower back pain, daytime sleepiness and several anthropometric measurements were obtained under the two conditions. Participants spent on average 5.79±1.51 hrs sitting in the office, and used the seat-cycle for an average of 22.8 minutes daily at work. Significant improvements (p<0.05) were noted in a pre-to-post setting for resting systolic blood pressure (124.9±12.57 mmHg vs 120.5±13.56 mmHg); sleepiness ratings between 1300–1400 hrs (1.91±0.71 vs 1.56±0.57); lower back pain score (0.95±1.02 vs 0.57±0.68) and sleep quality (4.81±2.16 vs 3.38±2.04) after the S-C intervention. The use of the S-C provides deskbound workers a potential way to interrupt prolonged sitting at work and further research is recommended to support such interventions at the workplace.
Date Issued
2015