Are we sitting (too) comfortably?: Developing health-enhancing intervention strategies to reduce time spent sitting whilst working from home

随着我们从Covid-19大流行中走出来，在家工作（WfH）可能成为许多员工的新常态。公司已经投资为员工提供WfH的资源，许多员工将被鼓励继续在家工作。事实上，英国最大的公司之一联合利华（Unilever）本周（1月14日）宣布，他们的员工将永远不会回到每周工作五天的办公室，因为这种工作方式现在被视为“非常过时”。虽然这种转变对员工有积极的影响（例如，没有通勤成本），但也有负面影响，特别是与久坐行为（如坐着）所花费的时间有关。随着在线会议时间的增加，通勤或四处走动参加会议/与同事互动/出去吃午餐/喝咖啡时不动，对许多员工来说，他们坐着的时间会大大增加。久坐行为已被确定为一种公共健康危害，对身体（每天超过6-8小时，与死亡、2型糖尿病和肥胖的风险增加有关）和精神健康（久坐时间长，与抑郁有关）都有影响。英国首席医疗官建议，所有成年人都应该尽量减少一天中久坐的时间，并通过轻度体育活动来打破长时间的久坐。传统的办公室工作环境通常要求员工坐着工作。有研究针对传统的办公室工作环境，探索久坐行为的水平、影响久坐工作时间的因素，以及成功干预措施的实施。然而，这些研究的结果不能应用于物理和社会环境非常不同的WfH（例如，在家工作设置，没有同事，工作活动如何进行的差异）。缺乏与久坐行为相关的研究，我们目前不知道如何最好地支持员工的久坐行为。在这个工作做法广泛转变的时代，迫切需要在一段持续时期内可行、可接受、负担得起和有效的干预措施或规划。这项研究的总体目标是制定策略，帮助肥胖者减少或打破久坐不动的行为。虽然所有员工都可以从干预中受益，但为了最大限度地提高当前和未来的公共健康收益，我们将重点放在18-40岁年龄段的工作岗位上，这些工作岗位与久坐时间有关。我们有五个具体目标：1。从传统工作场所的文献中寻找可转移的支持策略。从雇员和雇主那里收集他们对久坐行为的看法。与雇员和雇主一起探讨他们对开发和完善的干预资源的可接受性、可行性和参与程度的看法。持续与工作场所的利益相关者协商。设计和完善干预策略，并创建一个初步理论，解释我们如何期望干预有效。鉴于这一课题的研究较少，研究结果的潜在应用和效益可能受到高度追捧，具有广泛的效益。随着我们走出Covid-19，创造积极和支持性的工作环境，支持健康和福祉，促进生产力和参与度，将是许多公司的优先事项。本研究创造的干预资源将支持WfH员工发展可持续的行为，以减少他们的久坐行为，从而最大限度地减少长时间坐着的短期影响（例如，肌肉骨骼不适），并降低与慢性疾病（如2型糖尿病）相关的长期风险。

Working from home (WfH) is likely to become the new norm for many employees as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies have invested in setting employees up with the resources to WfH and many employees will be encouraged to continue home working. Indeed one of the UK's largest companies (Unilever) announced this week (14.01.21) that their office workers will never return to five days a week in an office with this type of working seen as "very old fashioned now". While there are positive consequences in relation to this shift for employees (e.g. no commuting costs), there are also negative effects particularly in relation to the amount of time spent in sedentary behaviours, such as sitting. With increased time spent in online meetings, no movement while commuting or moving around to meetings/interact with colleagues/go out for lunch/coffee, for many employees their time spent sitting while WfH will have dramatically increased. Time spent in sedentary behaviours has been identified as a public health hazard with both physical (more than 6-8 hours/day associated with an increased risk of mortality, type 2 diabetes and obesity) and mental health consequences (higher levels of sedentary time associated with depression). The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend all adults should minimise time spent sedentary across the day and break up long periods of sedentary time with light physical activity. Traditional office based work settings often require employees to conduct their work while seated. Research has emerged on the traditional office based work setting to explore levels of sedentary behaviour, what factors influence time spent sitting at work, and the implementation of successful interventions. The findings of these research studies cannot however be applied to WfH where the physical and social environment is very different (e.g. home working set up, absence of colleagues, difference in how work activities are conducted). Research relating specifically to sedentary behaviour while WfH is lacking - we currently don't know how best to support employees while WfH in relation to their sedentary behaviours. Interventions or programmes that are feasible, acceptable, affordable and effective over a sustained period are urgently needed in this time of a widespread shift in working practices. The overall aim of this research study is to develop strategies to support people WfH to reduce/break up their sedentary behaviour. Whilst all employees could benefit from intervention, to maximize current and future public health gain we have focused on the 18-40 years age group in job roles associated with high levels of sitting. We have five specific objectives: 1. To scope the literature from traditional workplaces to identify transferable support strategies2. To collect data from employees and employers on their views on sedentary behaviour3. To explore with employees and employers their perceptions in relation to acceptability, feasibility and engagement with interventions resources as they are developed and refined4. To continually consult with workplace well-being stakeholders5. To design and refine intervention strategies and create an initial theory explaining how we expect the intervention to be effective. Given the scarcity of research on this topic, the potential applications and benefits of the study findings are likely to be highly sought after with widespread benefit. As we emerge from Covid-19, the creation of positive and supporting work environments that support health and well-being, and facilitate productivity and engagement will be a priority for many companies. The intervention resources created in this study will support employees WfH to develop sustainable behaviours to reduce their sedentary behaviours thereby minimising short-term effects of long periods of sitting (e.g., musculo-skeletal discomfort) and longer term risk reduction in relation to chronic conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes.