Stand up for employee health
Sit-stand device reduces risks
The most dangerous thing some of your employees may do each day is just sitting at their desk. Sedentary behavior — long hours of sitting — can increase metabolic and cardiovascular risks, even in someone who gets regular exercise on most days.1,2
For employees who work in call centers, data input, or other desk jobs, there might seem to be little recourse to spending much of the day in a desk chair. But a new study indicates that employees are willing to stand at their desk for part of the day, and the time spent standing can improve their health.
“Reducing sitting time has become a major focus for health promotion,” says Nico P. Pronk, PhD, Vice President and Health Science Officer, HealthPartners in Minneapolis. And it’s a major opportunity for employers, he says.
“In the last five decades in this country, most of the moderate-intensity type jobs have moved to sedentary type jobs. We’ve had a 50% reduction in moderate-intensity work,” he says. “That has a progressive impact on overall health. If you make this part of the workflow so people don’t have to think about it and it becomes a way that you view your work, it can have a major benefit.”
Pronk and colleagues tested a sit-stand device with 34 employees in the health promotion department. The Take-a-Stand Project, as it was dubbed, led to about 66 fewer minutes sitting each day (an improvement of 224%), less upper back and neck pain and improved mood.3
“People ended up feeling much better,” says Pronk. “We found significant improvements in fatigue, vigor, tension, self-esteem, confusion and total mood disturbance.”
Break up hours of sitting
The project tested devices produced by Ergotron of Eagan, MN, that fit into an existing desk. The worker can adjust the height of the monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Employees completed surveys before and after the intervention, and they received three random texts a day on prepaid cell phones to find out if they were sitting, standing or walking. Twenty-three received the sit-stand devices and 10 remained at traditional desks as a comparison group.
It was a simple adjustment to raise the computer for a standing posture. Pronk stresses that employees weren’t expected to stand all day. “They just need to break up these long hours (of sitting),” he says. “If you can stand up every 30 minutes to one hour and break up that prolonged sitting time, then you get the benefit.”
Standing produces more blood flow, he says. “Physiologically, when you stand you activate a lot of muscles to maintain your balance. Your muscles are relaxing and contracting to maintain that balance. You’re always moving slightly from side to side,” he says. “Compared to doing nothing, it’s a huge difference.”
While Pronk wasn’t able to demonstrate an impact on productivity in the study, feedback from employees indicated that they felt more capable. For example, employees made comments like, “’When I stand up I feel like I’m more attentive to the issues of my clients.’ That translates into a higher quality of interaction with our clients, which to me is a productivity issue,” he says.
Back to the future
After four weeks, the devices were removed, and Pronk and his colleagues continued to monitor sitting, standing and walking for another two weeks.
“Within a couple of days, when you take the device away, people are basically sitting all the time,” he says. “The complete yield of the intervention was gone almost instantaneously. We felt definitely it was the device that made this work.”
The study was small, so while the results are promising, Pronk plans to do further research. But HealthPartners saw enough evidence to purchase about 2,000 of the devices, which sell for about $400 to $500 each.
“We make it available to those who have sedentary types of jobs,” he says. “We’ve introduced it as part of our health and wellness suite of programs.” HealthPartners also integrates it into the health promotion programs of corporate clients.
Pronk himself uses a sit-stand device and spends much of his day standing. He says it has made him more active, even when he’s just talking on the phone.
“It’s going back to the future,” he says.
“Around the turn of the century, standing desks were quite popular.”
References
- Healy G, Wijndaele K, Dunstan DW, et al. Objectively measured sedentary time, physical activity, and metabolic risk: The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Diabetes Care 2008; 31:369–371.
- Owen N, Sparling PB, Healy GN, et al. Sedentary behavior: Emerging evidence for a new health risk. Mayo Clin Proc 2010; 85:1138-1141.
- Pronk NP, Katz AS, Lowry M, and Payfer JR. Reducing occupational sitting time and improving worker health: The Take-a-Stand Project, 2011. Preventing Chronic Disease 2012. Available at www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2012/11_0323.htm#Tables. Accessed on October 23, 2012.
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