Memo Office Workers: Study Shows Standing Can Be Worse Than Sitting
A new University of Sydney study has found that over the long-term standing more compared with sitting does not improve cardiovascular health (coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure) and could in fact “increase the risk of circulatory issues related to standing, such as varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis”.
The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also found that sitting for over 10 hours a day increased both cardiovascular disease and orthostatic incidence risk, which it said reinforced “the need for greater physical activity throughout the day”.
“While the researchers found that there were no health benefits gained from standing more, they cautioned against sitting for extended periods, recommending that people who are regularly sedentary or find themselves standing for long periods schedule regular movement throughout the day,” University of Sydney said.
The research – which did not specifically cover standing desks – also noted that standing more was not associated with heightened cardiovascular disease risk.
“The key takeaway is that standing for too long will not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health,” lead author Dr Matthew Ahmadi said.
“We found that standing more does not improve cardiovascular health over the long term and increases the risk of circulatory issues.”
In the background section to the study the authors state that previous studies “have indicated that standing may be beneficially associated with surrogate metabolic markers, whereas more time spent sitting has an adverse association”.
However, they say that studies assessing the impact of standing, sitting and “composite stationary” behaviour time with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and orthostatic circulatory disease are “scarce and show an unclear picture”.
The objective of the study was to “examine associations of daily sitting, standing and stationary time with CVD and orthostatic circulatory disease incidence”.
Data was crunched from 83, 013 adults from the UK Biobank to assess daily time spent sitting and standing. Major CVD was defined as coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke. Orthostatic circulatory disease was defined as orthostatic hypotension, varicose vein, chronic venous insufficiency and venous ulcers.