Reducing Occupational Sitting Time and Improving Worker Health: The Take-a-Stand Project, 2011

Details

• Journal Article:
  Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
• Personal Author:
  Pronk, Nicolaas P. ; Katz, Abigail S. ; Lowry, Marcia ; Payfer, Jane Rodmyre
• Description:
  Background ; Prolonged sitting time is a health risk. We describe a practice-based study designed to reduce prolonged sitting time and improve selected health factors among workers with sedentary jobs. ; Community Context ; We conducted our study during March-May 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, among employees with sedentary jobs. ; Methods ; Project implementation occurred over 7 weeks with a baseline period of 1 week (period 1), an intervention period of 4 weeks (period 2), and a postintervention period of 2 weeks (period 3). The intervention group (n = 24) received a sit-stand device during period 2 designed to fit their workstation, and the comparison group (n = 10) did not. We used experience-sampling methods to monitor sitting behavior at work during the 7 weeks of the project. We estimated change scores in sitting time, health risk factors, mood states, and several office behaviors on the basis of survey responses. ; Outcome ; The Take-a-Stand Project reduced time spent sitting by 224% (66 minutes per day), reduced upper back and neck pain by 54%, and improved mood states. Furthermore, the removal of the device largely negated all observed improvements within 2 weeks. ; Interpretation ; Our findings suggest that using a sit-stand device at work can reduce sitting time and generate other health benefits for workers.
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Occupational Diseases
  • Occupational Exposure
  • Occupations
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 9.
• ISSN:
  1545-1151
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/19759/cdc_19759_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 292.35 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:07757267d9ced272d5821f8bc5069ca7ef6893c34de927ccd775b62fb767c1b4db5a37bbfb9d50295722f09caafa261c930140277bc7ba9a6f471b5d9549b632