“Are We Working (Too) Comfortably?”: Understanding the Nature of and Factors Associated with Sedentary Behaviour When Working in the Home Environment

Abstract

Home working has increased due to COVID-19, but little is known about how this change has impacted the health risk behaviour of elevated sedentary time. The aim of this cross-sectional exploratory study was to assess occupational sitting behaviour when working at home, and use the Capability Opportunity Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model to identify influences on this behaviour. University staff (n = 267; 69% female; 92% white) who were predominantly working from home completed a questionnaire to assess sitting time, sitting breaks, demographic and occupational characteristics, and a 7-item COM-B questionnaire and open-ended questions to assess influences on time spent sitting whilst working from home. Data were analysed descriptively, a repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine differences in the COM-B items, and binary logistic regression was used to examine predictors of sitting time. Staff spent on average 89.5% (SD = 17.1) of their time sitting whilst working at home, and took an average of 1.36 (1.38) sitting breaks per hour. There were significant and meaningful differences in the influence of the COM factors on ability and willingness to reduce sitting behaviour (p < .0001; ηp2 = .38), and the open-ended responses added further context. The included variables accounted for 20.7% of variance in sitting behaviour, with age, sitting breaks, motivation-automatic, and opportunity-physical contributing significantly. Working from home leads to elevated levels of sitting, and the COM-B provides a useful model to identify key influences on ability and willingness to reduce sitting. Strategies incorporating regular breaks, habit formation/reversal, and restructuring the physical environment may be beneficial.

What it takes to reduce sitting at work: a pilot study on the effectiveness and correlates of a multicomponent intervention

“…First, a limiting factor for the generalizability of the study results is the Covid-19 pandemic situation during the data collection which may explain why the majority of participants indicated working from home at least partially. A recent study showed that working at home office is associated with high sedentary time and linked to different environmental and motivational determinants (Niven et al 2023 ). Therefore, study results may not be (fully) applicable to on-site work.…”

“Some People Sit, Some People Stand, That’s Just What We Do”: a Qualitative Exploration of Sit-Stand Desk Use in Naturalistic Settings

“…To date, most of the research on this topic has been carried out in workers who travel to their place of work, however, there has been an increase in homeworking following the Covid-19 pandemic with 24% of workers now reporting to follow a hybrid model of working (Office for National Statistics, 2022). In a study of homeworking (tele-working) university employees, staff spent almost 90% of their working time sitting (Niven et al, 2022) therefore strategies which can be employed to reduce prolonged sitting in the home-working environment are clearly required to reduce sedentary behaviour and associated ill health and disease risk. There has been research exploring the use of treadmill desks when working from home, which reports similar motivators to those found in our study, including an overwhelming desire to sit less and to 'feel healthier' (Scisco et al, 2023).…”

Effects of working from home on lifestyle behaviors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey study

“…Workers who used to commute to work, worked in an in-presence setting, and interacted with colleagues face-to-face, could now spend longer hours sitting in front of a computer screen [17]. Exacerbation of sedentary behavior may increase the risk for pain and discomfort as well as for adverse health outcomes [49][50][51][52], thus claiming specific attention in order to reduce sitting time in home workers. An increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome was reported for sedentary occupation types [53].…”