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Investment and usage of sit-stand workstations

Latest evidence

One strategy that has been shown to result in substantial reductions in workplace sedentary time, particularly when accompanied by behaviour change programs like BeUpstanding, has been the use of sit-stand workstations. These workstations allow a user to shift between a sitting and standing posture while working on their computer. The popularity of sit-stand workstations in Australia has exploded, with a report showing a 400% increase in sales of sit-stand workstations since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with over 90% delivered to home addresses. This phenomenon isn’t just restricted to Australia with a global market research report showing that sales of sit-stand workstations are expected to reach $2.8 billion by 2025. To date, the majority of research on sit-stand workstations has been from the perspective of the user, i.e., the individual employee. However, it is also important to understand their use and implementation from the perspective of the decision maker responsible for their purchase. One of our outstanding BeUpstanding PhD candidates, Haroun Zerguine, has conducted research to address this evidence gap. His findings, which have been published in Applied Ergonomics (here and here), are summarised below. What was done The study included an online survey as well as interviews with…

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What our international teams are aiming to achieve with BeUpstanding

BeUpstanding Stories

Although BeUpstanding was initially designed to target Australian based workplaces, the program is available globally. To date, we have had over 160 teams from 35 countries outside of Australia sign up to the program. Most of the teams are from the United Kingdom and the United States, however, we also have teams from the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Switzerland taking part in our program. As part of the sign-up process, users are asked what they are aiming to achieve from the program. In previous blog articles (Part 1 & Part 2), we have examined what our Australian teams responded to this question. In this article, Bachelor of Health Sciences placement student Rou Jing Tham dives into the data from our international organisations. Data used and key findings: When users sign up to the BeUpstanding program, one of the questions that they were asked is ‘What are you hoping to achieve by your work team taking part in BeUpstanding?’ We explored the responses that we have received so far from our international teams and identified four main reasons: (1) to improve the working atmosphere; (2) to improve health and wellbeing; (3) to increase awareness; and, (4) to change the working environment.  Create…

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Who are our small businesses taking part in BeUpstanding?

BeUpstanding Stories

Small business is one of the priority sectors that we are targeting for our national implementation trial of BeUpstanding. In a previous blog, Bernice Chong reported on why small business is one of our priority sectors. In this blog, she looks at the characteristics of the small businesses taking part in BeUpstanding. Over 100 Australian small businesses (defined as fewer than 20 employees) have championed this cause and partnered with the BeUpstanding team in tackling prolonged sitting in their workplace. Qualitative studies on champion and staff experiences doing the BeUpstanding program found improvements in knowledge/awareness about sitting, cultural norms, perceived stress, productivity, and resilience, benefitting team culture and staff wellbeing. This aligns with current research that reported reducing sitting and increasing movement promotes worker health, safety and wellbeing with positive impacts on productivity, staff morale and talent attraction and retention. The average Australian adult spends a large amount of time each day sitting at work. 75% of the average Australian’s workday is spent sitting. This substantial percentage makes the workplace an ideal target for intervention to reduce excessive sitting. The characteristics of the small business teams taking part in BeUpstanding A total of 132 Australian small businesses have registered their interest…

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Mix it up for musculoskeletal health: a webinar

BeUpstanding Stories

One of BeUpstanding’s lead investigators, Associate Professor Genevieve Healy, presented at the recent national Musculoskeletal Disorders Symposium in June. The event was held virtually and hosted by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, on behalf of the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities in Australia, and featured international and national experts, industry case studies, and online exhibitors with the theme of MSD prevention by design. Genevieve’s presentation titled “Addressing sedentary behaviour: occupational sitting, an emerging workplace health and safety issue” focused on why excessive sedentary time has now been acknowledged as an emergent health and safety issue and potential solutions for supporting workers to sit less and move more. Genevieve also presented some early findings from the BeUpstanding national implementation trial we have currently underway, that are showing reductions in self-reported musculoskeletal discomfort scores in three areas (Lower back; Upper back, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, or hands; and hips, thighs, buttocks, knees, ankles, or feet), with nearly a 15% relative reduction overall. Promising early results! You can now view the presentation as well as some of the other presentations via this link. Happy watching!

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Small but Significant: Why BeUpstanding thinks Australian Small Business is a Priority

BeUpstanding Stories

Small business is one of the priority sectors that we are targeting for our national implementation trial of BeUpstanding. But why is small business identified as a key sector? Bernice Chong is doing her health promotion placement for her Master of Health Psychology with the BeUpstanding team, investigating the unique considerations of running workplace health promotion programs like BeUpstanding in a small business team. In this first blog in her series, she looks at why small business is one of our priority sectors. What do we mean by small business? Small businesses are substantial contributors to the Australian economy and private sector employment, employing close to 5 million people. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines small business under the following categories: Micro businesses (those with 0-4 employees), including sole proprietors and partnerships, and non-employing businesses. Small businesses (those with 5-19 employees) Employment growth in small business have been increasing over the years, accounting for just under 60 per cent of total employment growth in the private sector between June 2013 and June 2018. This is a sizeable and growing group of employers and employees that could be targeted for workplace health promotion interventions in Australia, such as BeUpstanding. However,…

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Seeking workers with type 2 diabetes to sit less and move more

News and Events

BeUpstanding is about supporting workers to sit less and move more through raising awareness and creating a supportive culture for change. At this stage, there is no individual support provided for staff (though stay tuned on that!). However, many of the BeUpstanding research team are also involved with the OPTIMISE study, which is about understanding how to support workers with type 2 diabetes to sit less and move more across the day and the benefits of doing so. Intervention participants receive a sit-stand workstation, a Fitbit, tailored feedback and health coaching to help support them set and achieve goals both during work time and outside of work time. The study is now seeking volunteers, so if you live in Melbourne, have type 2 diabetes, and have a sedentary job, and this sounds of interest, please get in touch with the OPTIMISE research team via this link. Check out the recent news item for some more information.

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Thirty minute’s exercise won’t counteract sitting all day, but adding light movement can help

Latest evidence

It is recommended that we do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day – or 150 minutes a week – to stay healthy. But 30 minutes accounts for just 2% of the day. And many of us spend most of the rest of the time sitting – which can adversely impact on our health. A new study has revealed that 30 minutes of daily exercise is not enough to overcome the health risks of sitting too much, but also revealed that with the right balance of time spent exercising and moving, it may be possible to counteract the negatives of too much sitting. For this research the authors combined data from six different studies from the UK, US and Sweden looking at a total of over 130,000 adults. Each of the studies used a physical activity monitor (like a Fitbit) to measure a person’s movements and sitting time throughout the day. Each study then followed the participants for an average of four to 14 years to track whether any participants died. The researchers found that for those people who spent less than seven hours a day sitting, doing 30 minutes of daily exercise decreased the risk of early death…

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Free webinar on why and how to reduce sedentary behaviour

Key resources

The International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) has paired up with WHO to run a series of webinars based on the release of the WHO Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. The latest one on the 4th March featured BeUpstanding principal investigator A/Prof Genevieve Healy as part of the line-up, talking about the evidence on how to reduce sedentary behaviour. Check out the video below. You can also catch the other webinars in the series at: https://www.ispah.org/resources/free-webinars/

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WHO releases 2020 Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines

Key resources

In late 2020, the World Health Organisation released their guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. The development and/or updating of guidelines follows a clear protocol to ensure that the best available evidence is used. A full summary and explanation of the guidelines can be found here. For physical activity, it is recommended that all adults should undertake 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week. Regular muscle-strengthening activity is also recommended. This is in line with what we have with our Australian guidelines.  The big update for the 2020 WHO Guidelines was the inclusion of sedentary behaviour for the first time. In reviewing the evidence regarding the health impact of too much sedentary behaviour, it was concluded that higher amounts of sedentary behaviour in adults are associated with detrimental effects on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality and cancer mortality and incidence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. These are similar conclusions to what was reported for the scientific report for the US guidelines. For sedentary behaviour, the guidelines state that: Adults should limit the amount of time spent being sedentary. Replacing sedentary time…

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The impact of COVID-19 on staff taking part in BeUpstanding

BeUpstanding Stories

In a previous article, we looked at how COVID-19 had impacted champions implementing the BeUpstanding program in the workplace. The snapshot survey found that working from a home environment, team communication, keeping staff motivated and increased workload during COVID-19 were the biggest challenges to implementing the program. Since COVID-19, 56% of champions reported their team had temporarily paused the program. In this article, we examine the impacts of COVID-19 on staff. Data were from a survey we sent in May 2020 to staff participating in the BeUpstanding program. The survey asked about sitting and activity behaviours, working arrangements, and health and wellbeing now and before COVID-19. Only staff whose teams were participating in the national implementation trial of the program, and who had already completed the needs assessment element of the program, were eligible. A total of 38 survey responses were received and are reported on below. Working Arrangements On average, staff worked approximately 40 hours/week before and during COVID-19. While there was no significant change in work hours, there was a major transition from working in the office to working from home with 97% working mostly or completely at the workplace pre COVID-19 and 87% reporting working mostly or…

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