Research conducted among employees revealed 70% of office workers want their employer to support them in taking regular breaks at work for the sake of their health. Younger members of Britain’s workforce, aged 18-34, are most in agreement with this, as 79% strongly believe their employer should support regular health breaks, according to the research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Performance Health Systems.
The research also showed 73% of workers sit at their desk for up to six hours without a break and 62% of employees experience discomfort at work from prolonged sitting for more than 90 minutes.
The term ‘sitting disease’ has been coined by the scientific community and is commonly used when referring to metabolic syndrome and the ill-effects of an overly sedentary lifestyle, usually related to the extended amount of time that many of us now spend sitting while doing our nine-to-five.
To most of us, sitting disease simply manifests itself as those daily aches and pains brought on by sitting for too long or performing the same movement time after time, that we know are there but don’t worry us enough on a day-to-day basis to drive us to take action. Symptoms include: feeling lethargic, stiffness in shoulders, neck or spine, bad posture and numbness in the lower limbs.
If this behaviour continues day in, day out, it soon puts staff at risk of some serious health problems. An inactive work environment is shown to cause hormonal changes, and may increase the risk of employees developing anxiety, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, musculo-skeletal disorders, depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, spinal disc herniation, lipid disorders, colon cancer and obesity. Sitting for more than six hours a day can decrease the life span of men by 20% and women by 40%.
Sitting disease is not just a concern for the physically inactive. The ‘fit and focused’, those who visit the gym regularly or are active outside work, are at risk too. Even hitting the recommended levels of physical activity of five sessions of 30 minutes per week does not offset the negative impact of sitting at a desk for six hours a day.
Help is at hand. All-inclusive, out-of-the-gym solutions that employers can roll out quickly, simply and cost effectively across their workforce are beginning to emerge and become more commonplace.
Targeted and designed to proven criteria that engage a broad cross section of any employee population, such solutions are making an impact on many of the symptoms and risk factors mentioned above.
Moreover, when combined with a medical pedigree in solving this problem by applying science, research and medically certified equipment, a few solution providers can connect with employees on a different level. Rather than try to drive the traditionally hard-to-engage employee (‘the 70 percenter’) towards a solution that is too ‘fitnessy’ for them, they offer a quick, easily accessible and highly effective fix to this very specific problem. This becomes a preventative medical proposition to them, rather than having fitness-associated ‘look better, feel better’ undertones.
Sit-less, move-more solutions that combat sitting disease should be spontaneous, based on here-and-now symptoms that an employee feels at a specific moment during their workday, and can therefore react and seek relief. They do not need to be time consuming and employees should not be required to change from their everyday work clothes in order to take part.
Solutions need to be appropriate to the audience and accessible. Engaging the employee in a place that they already visit several times a day while at work, such as a relaxed break-out area, by the coffee concession, by the water cooler or the vending machine, will give the initiative constant visibility and not require a change to an already fixed daily routine in order for the employee to take part.
Having an employer sponsor its employees to take part daily in a quick series of specific and targeted movements, away from their desks, can refresh them enough to relieve physical pain and mental strain, energising or relaxing them, depending of their state of mind at the time. Ultimately, this is about a quick fix, allowing them to return to their desk in a healthier and more productive state, but also done regularly, twice a day with the right equipment, support structure and corporate culture, a simple innovation can help to prevent the longer-term chronic health conditions that can be brought on by short term sitting disease.
Employers are in a unique position to influence their employees at an age when interventions can still change their long-term health trajectory, benefiting the employer and employee alike over time. Why workplace wellness? Because employers care about the health of their organisations.
Chris Brown is corporate wellness and medical lead at Performance Health Systems UK.
