Subproject 1: Development of recommendations for interventions with the aim to prevent health consequences of sedentary work
Subproject 2: Assessment of different work environments on sedentary behaviour and physical activity in sedentary work - a field study
- Project number: F 2499
- Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
- Status: Ongoing Project
- Planned end: 2024-12-31
Description:
Sedentary behaviour / sedentary work, characterized by low energy expenditure, is a risk for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. With increasing digitalization, sedentary work and thus the frequency of these diseases will increase. According to a current forecast by the Robert Koch Institute, in 2040 over 10 million people in Germany will be affected by type 2 diabetes. The requirement to reduce sedentary behaviour at the workplace and to combine this with suggestions for more physical activity (e.g. by interruption of long sitting bouts and active breaks) is therefore an important prerequisite for maintaining and promoting cardiometabolic health and for preventing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The dimension of the metabolic challenge and the possibilities of its prevention for employees in sedentary work are not yet on the agenda of the actors in occupational safety and health and occupational health promotion. This gap is to be closed by a recommendation, which enables occupational practice to understand the topic of “sedentary work” and its health consequences in relation to cardiovascular and metabolic health and to introduce appropriate measures. For this purpose, studies on the topic are summarized and expert interviews with stakeholders from occupational medicine, occupational safety and health promotion will be performed. On this basis, recommendations are formulated and agreed.
The recommendations are supported and supplemented by a cross-sectional study that records the influence of different working environments on sitting behaviour (measured objectively with accelerometers) and health parameters. The field study also looks at possible differences in sitting and moving behaviour at the workplace and in the home office. This is of great importance against the background of the frequent use of home office due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.