Continuous sitting causes serious diseases
In the course of an average working life, an office employee spends several tens of thousands of hours performing sedentary tasks. All the more reason to attach great importance to office ergonomics.
The seated posture is perceived as relieving compared to standing. The posture is more stable when sitting than when standing. But static holding work can cause back and neck problems. Accordingly, up to 80 % of employees who perform daily VDU work report multiple health complaints such as aching eyes, tense shoulders or back problems. So sitting is more for comfort than for health. However, the human organism needs movement to remain healthy in the long term. For some time now, the use of sit-stand office workstations has therefore been recommended. In practice, it has been shown that even with ergonomically adjustable office furniture, the recommended alternation between sitting and standing hardly ever takes place. Among other reasons, this is because employees lack the knowledge to adjust the furniture correctly, and those who do not suffer from physical problems lack the motivation or acceptance.
Sitting for long periods endangers health
Recent research on sitting in the office shows that the health risks of prolonged sitting do not relate solely to physical tension. Rather, a number of negative health consequences occur when sitting for more than four hours a day. For example, the metabolic basal metabolic rate, i.e. the body's metabolic activity, fat burning and muscle activity in the legs, is reduced. This has been shown to increase the risk of a whole range of serious diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. According to the current state of research, the consequences of prolonged sitting cannot be compensated for by recreational sports. Accordingly, measures to reduce the risks need to be differentiated between those that reduce or interrupt prolonged sitting and those that aim to promote physical activity. Current research contributions indicate that measures to promote physical activity cannot reduce the time spent sitting at the same time.
Get up once every half hour
The recommended measures for reducing prolonged sitting can be summarized as follows: "Stand up, sit less, move more, more often! On the one hand, the measures are aimed at reducing the total time spent sitting and instead spending more time standing or walking. It should be noted that standing should not be static and should not last longer than 20 minutes at a time, otherwise negative physical consequences can also occur. On the other hand, the measures are aimed at interrupting long periods of sitting at a stretch - ideally this should happen every 30 minutes.
Initiate behavioral changes
Measures to reduce prolonged sitting can basically be divided into two different categories: behavioral and behavioral measures.
- Behavioral measures intend to generate a change in behavior among the individuals concerned. These include incentive systems, reminders, competitions or self-commitment and goal setting. For example, posters can be put up reminding employees to stand up in between walking. Or pedometers can be distributed, followed by a team competition to collect the most steps per team.
- Proportional measures start with the work situation and working conditions. These include, in particular, adjustments to the infrastructure and design of the office environment, such as the use of height-adjustable desks, decentrally located printers or coffee machines and water dispensers, and the attractive design of stairwells. In order to achieve the highest possible effectiveness of the measures, behavioral and relationship-oriented measures should be used in combination.
Sensitize employees
An important prerequisite for the success of the measures is communicating the knowledge that prolonged sitting poses a risk to health. Many people are not aware of the far-reaching negative health consequences of prolonged sitting. The people affected must be motivated to change their behavior and accept the measures implemented.
Responsibility for ergonomics is therefore not limited to the furnishing of workplaces, but includes regular measures to motivate, inform and convince people to behave in a healthy manner. Here, in addition to conventional awareness-raising measures through information and training, innovative measures that combine ergonomics and work effectiveness are also conceivable: For example, standing meetings often shorten the duration of meetings, and meetings while walking ("walking meetings") stimulate creativity.
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