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CDC.gov, Preventing Chronic Disease
Sit-stand devices used in the Take-a-Stand Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2011.
The Take-a-Stand Project was a partnership with a sit-stand device manufacturer, Ergotron, Inc, Eagan, Minnesota.
Office workers who spent an hour or so a day at stand-up workstations felt more energized, productive and even happier, researchers reported on Thursday. And if they keep it up, they may help reduce the damage done by sitting at a desk all day.
Study after study has shown that sitting all day long is bad for you. People risk developing lower back problems, kidney disease, heart disease and other ills – even if they exercise outside of work.
“If you go out for a 30 minute run , and then sit for eight hours at work, you could still have health problems because you are sitting all day,” said Nicolaas Pronk, a vice president at Minnesota-based HealthPartners, a non-profit health care organization that provides clinics, health insurance and does health care research.
Pronk decided to test special workstations on the organization’s employees.
They recruited 34 volunteers to test some of the commercial workstations on the market that allow users to sit or stand, as they like, without having to move all their stuff. They tried models made by Ergotron, Inc. of Eagan, Minnesota.
“There are different devices out there. The ones we tested, you clamp them onto the desk. It has a keyboard tray and you push up or push down as you want to sit or stand,” Pronk said. “Ergotron is located in the same town as we are. So we partnered with them.”
The question is, will people use them and if they do, do they stand up for enough of their days to make a difference. And if so, how does that affect them?
Over seven weeks, 10 workers stayed at their usual desks, while 24 used the new workstations, Pronk and colleagues report in this week’s issue of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
To be scientific, Pronk’s team checked in with workers several times a day to see whether they were standing or sitting and to see how they felt. “We provided all participants a prepaid cellular telephone and sent text messages at three random times throughout the course of the work day. Immediately upon receiving a text message, participants responded to the question, ‘Tell us what you are doing right now: sitting, standing, or walking?’ by using 0, 1, or 2 for sitting, standing, or walking, respectively,” the researchers wrote.
They also surveyed the workers more thoroughly three times during the study, once at the end of the seven weeks.
People really liked them, Pronk said. “People felt happier. They felt more confident. They were more productive. Across the board, the feedback was very positive.”
The workers who used the devices were lavish in their praise – 87 percent felt more comfortable, 87 percent felt energized, 75 percent felt healthier, 71 percent felt more focused, 66 percent felt more productive, 62 percent felt happier, and 33 percent felt less stressed.
“Not a single person in the intervention group indicated that they did not like the device,” Pronk said. In fact, HealthPartners now offers them to all employees. “Around 30 percent have them. There are about 2,000 people today who have one at their station,” Pronk said.
People sat, on average just over an hour less every day. While standing didn’t help lower back pain, it reduced upper back and neck pain by 54 percent, Pronk found.
Research is piling in that that shows just the act of sitting most of the day can cut years off your life. Researchers reported in July that cutting the time that people spend sitting to less than three hours would increase the U.S. life expectancy by two years. And reducing the time spent watching TV to less than 2 hours daily would increase life expectancy by 1.4 years.
Last month, British researchers found that people who spent the least amount of time sitting were also the least likely to have chronic kidney disease.
Pronk is himself sold on the idea. “I don’t think this is a fad. It’s a new way of doing your work,” he said. He uses one now. “I probably stand about 80 percent of the time when I am in my office. I leave it up when I leave at night so it’s up when I come in in the morning,” Pronk said.
Part of the appeal may be that employees can control the device themselves. “You literally can push this device up with your hand and you can stand up,” he said.
“It has an impact on their work while they at work. The fact is that sedentary job tasks will end up making people sit for such long periods of time that it truly, literally, affects their longevity, so this is a very important area of intervention. The entire work force can go home more energetic and energized than they came in in the morning. That makes a huge difference from a work-life balance perspective.”
Related links:
- Less sitting would add two years to Americans' lives
- All that sitting is killing you
- Stand up, for the sake of your kidneys
Leave a Comment:
I just got a shelf you can put on your desk. It's made of wood, is simple to use and minimalistic looking & affordable compared to replacing my desk. It's called a Staand Up Desk. Got it here www.staandupdesk.com. It's lightweight so its easy to transition to sitting and standing throughout the day. I had really bad hip pain from sitting all the time & standing part time throughout the day has helped immensely.
I just got a shelf you can put on your desk. It's made of wood, is simple to use and minimalistic looking & affordable compared to replacing my desk. It's called a Staand Up Desk. Got it here www.staandupdesk.com. It's lightweight so its easy to transition to sitting and standing throughout the day. I had really bad hip pain from sitting all the time & standing part time throughout the day has helped immensely.
Any one in Information Technology will tell you that sitting all day... without standing.. is very bad for your legs and back, however "standing" all day for 8 plus hours, can be bad for your feet, legs and back also. As another poster has said, this article is laced with Big Health Insurance overtones.. as well as the 1 or 2 companies who make this standing desk.
I just got a shelf you can put on your desk. It's made of wood, is simple to use and minimalistic looking & affordable compared to replacing my desk. It's called a Staand Up Desk. Got it here www.staandupdesk.com. It's lightweight so its easy to transition to sitting and standing throughout the day. I had really bad hip pain from sitting all the time & standing part time throughout the day has helped immensely.
Makes perfect sense, I'm standing most the day anyways due to restlessness.
Well that would makes sense since most my time spent during a day isn't behind a desk.
A body in motion.... stays in motion.
The concept is not new. I remember that in the early '60s that I requested that my office in our new corporate headquarters building be furnished with a stand-up desk. My request was based upon experience garnered when our facilities were overcrowded.
I had found that working standing up provided several benefits:
Enhanced focus and attention to detail.
Phone calls were on-point and brief.
Ditto for meetings with a co-worker or staff member, unless one or both of us sat.
At the end of the day I felt better.
However, the "need to establish and promote corporate uniformity" doomed my request.
BTW, I believe US Senator Bill Proxmire, known as much for his work ethic and prolific output as he was for his "Golden Fleece" awards, used a stand-up desk. If memory serves me, alleviation/prevention of back problems were involved.
I have an electric sit / stand desk I bought a few years ago. Just push the button to go to the height you want.
Truth be told though, I rarely put it up. I sit all the time. Lazy lazy me.
It's large enough for the monitor and keyboard and mouse and other stuff to sit on the desk and it all goes up / down at the same time.
Too bad it can't be programmed to change position every 30 minutes or so :(
I had my desk raised in my cubicle to a comfortable standing/working height years ago. I am 6'7" tall and the little chairs and little desk made me feel horrible by the end of the day. I got a bar height seat to use when I just needed a seat but still had one side of my desk at normal height for phone and conference call privacy and noise reduction. Otherwise I stood 8 hours a day and loved my job even more.
I think it's a great idea. Now simply add 'turn of the century' bar room gutter urinals to the standing desk idea, then workers can piss while they're standing at their jobs and save valuable moments of production time by not having to go to the restroom! Ahh, 21st. Century technology, I'm all for it!
That's the spirit! See, you think like a shareholder.
Do the the Names Charles Dickens or "Scrooge Rumsfeldt" ring a bell - MORONS!
Apparently standing has caused your blood supply to rush to your feet.
I'm a recent convert to the "standing-desk". After doing self-research and getting emails from friends I visited the local Ikea store and for $25 I ended up with custom, dual monitor configuration I've used for almost three months. See Lifehacker for more information at :
If you have a Costco or Sams Club nearby, see if they have any kitchen-gel-mats in stock. I found some at my local store for $22 and are about the size of your average door-mat.
This is a perfect way to test the waters on the cheap, to see if you'd like to do something more. Many DIY articles are available, including more in-depth articles on LifeHacker where much larger Ikea-desks are shown.
...and BTW, I'm 52. :)
Asia for Asians, Africa for Africans, White countries for EVERYBODY??????
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries."
The Netherlands and Belgium are more crowded than Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to "assimilate," i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I'm not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn't object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
Ummmm What happened did you take a wrong turn?
I love my standing desk! So many physical benefits to standing rather than sitting all day! I can take my "standing desk" when I travel also with the FlipCase. I can use my Ultrabook while waiting for the train or my plane at the airport.
You would not want this! So Young So Uninformed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis
Plantar fasciitis (PF) is a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue on the sole (bottom surface) of the foot. It is often caused by overuse of the plantar fascia or arch tendon of the foot. It is a very common condition and can be difficult to treat if not looked after properly. Another common term for the affliction is "policeman's heel".
As a matter of act, having tiny cubicles also forces feet to the floor for too long.
Hmm...I'm thinking you should ask factory workers if standing all day is comfortable.
I've had several jobs where I stood 8 hours a day, and every single one of them lead to FOOT PAIN.
As I've been in a wheelchair for the last 38 years, I guess I'm hosed. Doh!
United Airlines had a CEO that used only a standup desk. And then he entered rehab.
Nobody I know sits at a desk for 8hrs a day. People get up and move around several times during the course of their shift. This study is so full of crap it's almost a sin to call it a study. I think they're just trying to sell more of these standup work stations.
Soon we will wear our computers and see the displays through heads-up eyeglass devices or implants. Then you can sit, stand, run, or whatever you like. It might not even matter where you are. The employer just needs you to do things that machines and computers can't yet do.
Then, machines and computers will do everything. You just waste away and die before 30 on free government supplied drugs.
It's gonna be a great future: brain wave educated by 14, married and kids at 16, old and dead at 30. It's kind of like a zip file compression for humans. It's going to solve a lot of social security and health care demographic problems all in one fell swoop.
Now that you've all done the research, it should be plain to see that this is a liberal conspiracy to keep the working man working.
Maybe if you werent browsing facebook and tweeting on the company time you wouldnt have been "ushered" out.
Next job, try actually "working". <snicker>
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On a real note, this should be a standard OSHA requirement (yea yea gov intrusion blah blah $$$ blah).
Im in tech support and believe me sitting all day is like being in a vise.
The call-ins and turnover that result from sitting all day causing lost productivity would be worth the $$.
I think you missed the article on NBC News about this topic. For many science workers - I guess not you, weathermen, I mean innovators - Facebook and Twitter are useful methods for maintaining professional contacts. Many of those contacts are nurtured through activities such as conferences and training (which progressive sci/tech/eng/math types should endeavor to participate in to prevent becoming stale and thereby relegated to tech support roles) and extend beyond mere professional courtesies. In fact, at my last science job, many of my biggest clients and peers were also connected via Facebook and Twitter, indispensable mechanisms for quick idea exchange and collaboration. This may come to you as an incomprehensible situation. Now employers are demanding that employees cough up their personal social media contacts as a condition of employment. Between that and non-disclosure agreements it becomes nearly impossible to network your way through an upward career path without considerable legal expense.
Keep up. Read up. Your job could be done by a Chinaman for a fraction of the cost.
As a retired pharmacist, I can tell you that your feet and the veins in your legs will take a beating over a lifetime while standing. On the other hand, maybe the statistics about life expectancy are valid. I'm certain more data is needed as there still is for the health food of the month.
Thomas Mann was right when he said "Everything is politics." Even the discussion of a chair leads to partisan sniping, name calling and blame throwing. Maybe our shrinking cubicles should be soundproof.
If people really like this then that's great. I've worked jobs where I had the "freedom" to stand all day and all I got out of it were feet so sore it seemed like they had been beaten by hammers. Granted, I couldn't walk around, but still Whatever floats your boat I guess.
I have suffered back problems for years, some requiring surgery. A couple of years ago I was in serious pain when sitting so had a lectern moved into my office so I could work standing up. It was great! I was able to work relatively pain free and my recovery from the injury was much faster than at previous times. Everyone should have this option. The only thing that would have made it even better is if the standing desk was situated over a slow treadmill so I could have occasionally walked while reading.