Sitting at Work: Though People Know It’s Bad, They Won’t Change Their Ways

A 2013–2014 Gallup poll discovered that the average worker in the U.S. spends about 47 hours on the job per week. Of those holding salaried positions, 25% report working at least 60 hours per week (Saad 2014). In 2015, On Your Feet Britain—a campaign urging office workers to get up from their desks more—released a survey that found significant inactivity among its 2,000 respondents:

• 45% of women and 37% of men spent 30 or fewer minutes on their feet during work hours.
• The majority of respondents ate lunch at their desk.
• Nearly 80% believed they sat too much.
• lmost two-thirds worried that inactivity was threatening their health (British Heart
  Foundation 2015).

Over the past several years, an avalanche of research has cited the many dangers of sitting too much; they include increased risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, some form of cancers, weight gain and even premature death (Chau et al. 2012; Dunstan, Thorp & Healy 2011; van der Ploeg et al. 2012). Some reports suggest people who sit a lot but also work out are not exempt from such health problems (Biswas et al. 2015). Standing at work doesn’t seem to do much to solve the problem, either (Chaput et al. 2015).

To confound the issue, other studies have found little—if any—association between being still and health hazards. These studies theorize that seated desk work has been unfairly maligned, and instead they blame lack of movement (Pulsford et al. 2015; van Uffelin et al. 2010).

Though many of the reports present conflicting evidence, they all agree that regular physical activity is necessary for a healthy life. Yet even with this message getting wide-spread coverage in the mass media, many people remain highly inactive throughout the day (Knox, Musson & Adams 2015). Even the fear of developing an inactivity-related disease doesn’t necessarily result in long-term behavior change (Tannenbaum et al. 2015).

To read more about understanding the biological, psychological and social ramifications of pain, please see “The Office Worker’s Workout” in the online IDEA Library or in the February 2016 print issue of IDEA Fitness Journal. If you cannot access the full article and would like to, please contact the IDEA Inspired Service Team at (800) 999-4332, ext. 7.