October 21, 2024, 9:04 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Standing at work has become increasingly popular, especially among people who want to counteract the health effects of sitting too much. Standing desks and height-adjustable desks have become a popular option for office workers. However, according to a new study, these do not have the desired effect. FITBOOK editor Sophie Brünke reports.
Sitting a lot is unhealthy. Whether in front of the TV, in the car, or at work. It promotes back problems, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. Conversely, this means just standing up more often, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Standing cannot compensate for sitting, as a recently published study by the University of Sydney shows. In the worst-case scenario, the well-intentioned “standing break” can even harm your health.
Overview
Long-term study examined 83,000 test subjects
The aim of the scientists was to investigate the links between daily sitting and standing and the incidence of cardiovascular and orthostatic circulatory diseases.1
The team led by study author Matthew Ahmadi used data from 83,013 adults (average age 61.3 years) from the UK Biobank to determine the daily time spent sitting and standing. The test subjects were given a movement tracker to wear on their wrist for seven days. This device, which can be thought of as a smartwatch, recorded the acceleration of the test subjects. To put it more simply, when the test person changed their position,
At the beginning of the study, none of the participants were affected by heart disease. The follow-up period was seven to eight years. During this period, 6,829 cardiovascular diseases and 2,042 orthostatic circulatory diseases occurred. The scientists defined the latter as hypotension, varicose veins, chronic venous insufficiency, and venous ulcers.
Neither sitting nor standing is healthy
Test subjects who spent more than 10 hours a day sitting were at a higher risk of orthostatic circulatory diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Each additional hour of sitting beyond 10 hours per day was associated with a 26 percent higher risk. However, even standing did not have the positive effect that many standing desk users would like. Although it was not associated with a higher cardiovascular risk than sitting, it was associated with a higher risk of orthostatic circulatory disease. Those who spent more than 2 hours a day standing increased this risk by 11 percent for every additional half hour.
Dr. Ahmadi explains in a press release: “The key finding is that standing for too long does not compensate for an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and may be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health. We found that more standing does not improve cardiovascular health in the long term and increases the risk of circulatory problems.”2
How can prolonged sitting be compensated for?
The scientists conclude that people should move more throughout the day and sit or stand for less time at a time. Anyone who has to sit or stand a lot during working hours should, therefore, take regular exercise breaks in order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The results of the study, therefore, call into question current intervention strategies that focus solely on replacing sitting time with standing time without increasing physical activity.
Study author Emmanuel Stamatakis advises: “Take regular breaks, walk around, hold meetings while walking, use the stairs, take regular breaks when driving long distances, or use your lunch break to get away from your desk and move around.”
Exercise after work is not enough, either
As a study published in 2015 shows, even exercise cannot compensate for the negative effects of many hours of sitting. So, if you sit for the entire working day and only go to the gym in the evening, you are just as unlucky as couch potatoes. The decisive factor is regularly interrupting sitting with movement.3
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Classification of the study
The authors cite the use of measuring devices as a key strength of the study. In contrast to previous device-based studies, these were able to examine the components of stationary behavior separately. This made it possible to assess the risks associated with sitting and standing. They also drew on the world’s largest current data resource for wearable devices with links to information on health outcomes.
Limitations included the potential misclassification of posture and movement as the devices were worn on the wrist. However, gold standard data (device on the thigh) was used for comparison, which was close to the measurements in this study. As the study design was observational, no causal conclusions could be drawn.