The effect of sit-stand desks on office worker behavioral and health outcomes
Applied Ergonomics

You hear it a lot, but saying that “sitting is the new smoking” misses the crucial part about acknowledging a solution.

One study found that US adults spend 55% of their waking time sitting, which doesn’t seem to be working well for us. There’s a relationshipbetween time spent sitting and your risk of an early death. The good news is that that same research showed that folks who sat for less than 30 minutes at a time had the lowest risk. What I want to know is if the solution is to simply stand up, or if we should follow the advice from the American Heart Association and “sit less, move more.”

The study
Dr. April Chambers of the University of Pittsburgh gathered data from 53 studies that each looked into the benefits of standing desks. Dr. Chambers wanted to know how working at a stand-up desk impacts behavior, physiology, work performance, psychology, discomfort, and posture.

Results
Using a sit-stand desk did in fact get people to sit less and stand more, but that was about the end of the benefits.

The study found only minimal impacts on any of the above-mentioned areas, with the strongest changes in behavior and, unfortunately, discomfort. They did note a mild reduction in blood-pressure and low back pain, but participants were too busy being disappointment that standing didn’t help them lose weight. What gives!?

Takeaway
Sitting all day isn’t favorable to a healthy body, but replacing that time with standing doesn’t look like the solution we’re hoping for. What we need is specific guidelines for sitting that focus on 30 minute intervals, followed by at least 5 minutes of movement. A better tagline for the AHA might be: “sit less than 30 minutes, and move more every hour.”