Temporal dynamics of sitting behavior at work

Abstract

<jats:p>Sitting for prolonged periods of time impairs people’s health. Prior research has mainly investigated sitting behavior on an aggregate level, for example, by analyzing total sitting time per day. By contrast, taking a dynamic approach, here we conceptualize sitting behavior as a continuous chain of sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transitions. We use multilevel time-to-event analysis to analyze the timing of these transitions. We analyze ∼30,000 objectively measured posture transitions from 156 people during work time. Results indicate that the temporal dynamics of sit-to-stand transitions differ from stand-to-sit transitions, and that people are quicker to switch postures later in the workday, and quicker to stand up after having been more active in the recent hours. We found no evidence for associations with physical fitness. Altogether, these findings provide insights into the origins of people’s stand-up and sit-down decisions, show that sitting behavior is fundamentally different from exercise behavior, and provide pointers for the development of interventions.</jats:p>

Characterizing and predicting person-specific, day-to-day, fluctuations in walking behavior

“…Numerous examples of sudden gains and losses in complex systems exist in the literature, from asthma attacks [ 25 ], shifts in motivational flow [ 26 ], improvements or aggravations of symptoms in individuals with depression, mood and/or anxiety disorders [ 27 ], and, at a broader level, forms of societal collapse [ 28 ] or climatic change [ 29 ]. In the health behavioral science literature, recent studies found that sleep stage transitions [ 30 ], as well as sedentary behaviors (i.e., time spent sitting) [ 31 ], were characterized by such irregular patterns of change. More volitional behaviors, such as daily changes in alcohol consumption, have also been successfully modelled with methods allowing the consideration of non-linearity and non-stationarity [ 32 ].…”

Protocol of the Healthy Brain Study: An accessible resource for understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context

“…In other words, what psychological processes (e.g., related to effort, reward, affect, and fatigue) are associated with healthy and unhealthy sedentary behavior? Answering this question will pave the way for the development of novel, targeted interventions that will improve (occupational) health [ 155 ].…”

Rise and Recharge: Exploring Employee Perceptions of and Contextual Factors Influencing an Individual-Level E-Health Smartphone Intervention to Reduce Office Workers’ Sedentary Time at Work

“…Similar to another computer-based e-health intervention [ 49 ], the manual entry required to log a break via the application was also commonly perceived as clunky and inconvenient, and there were calls from participants to map the smartphone technology to inbuilt accelerometer capabilities to automatically detect when a person had broken up their sedentary time; link with existing wearable technologies such as a wrist worn device; or sync with participants workday calendar/schedule to tailor the intervention strategy and detect when participants were in meetings and avoid prompts at inconvenient or inappropriate times. While tailoring future strategies to individual needs seems important, a cross sectional study among predominately desk-based workers also showed that employees are naturally quicker at transitioning between seated and standing postures later on in the working day [ 50 ]. Considering the temporal dynamics of SB within workplace in addition to the method and frequency of prompt delivery may also help to optimize compliance and behavior change and increase acceptability and feasibility over time.…”