A practical guidance for assessments of sedentary behavior at work: A PEROSH initiative

Andreas Holtermann (1) , Vera Schellewald (2, 3) , Svend Erik Mathiassen (4) , Nidhi Gupta (1) , Andrew Pinder (5) , Anne Punakallio (6) , Kaj Bo Veiersted (7) , Britta Weber (3) , Esa-Pekka Takala (6) , Francesco Draicchio (8) , Henrik Enquist (9) , Kevin Desbrosses (10) , Maria Peñahora García Sanz (11) , Marzena Malińska (12) , María Villar (11) , Michael Wichtl (13) , Michaela Strebl (13) , Mikael Forsman (14) , Sirpa Lusa (6) , Tomasz Tokarski (12) , Peter Hendriksen (1) , Rolf Ellegastg (3)

1 National Research Centre for the Working Environment
2 German Sport University Cologne [Germany]
3 IFA - Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance
4 University of Gävle
5 HSL - Health and Safety Laboratory
6 FIOH - Finnish Institute of Occupational Health of Helsinki
7 National Institute of Occupational Health (STAMI)
8 INAIL - Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro [Italian Workers Compensation Authority]
9 Skane University Hospital [Lund]
10 INRS ( Vandoeuvre lès Nancy) - Institut national de recherche et de sécurité (Vandoeuvre lès Nancy)
11 INSHT - Spanish National Institute for Safety and Hygiene at Work
12 CIOP-PIB - Central Institute for Labour Protection - National Research Institute
13 AUVA - Austrian Workers' Compensation Board
14 Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]

Sedentary behavior is defined as sitting or lying with low energy expenditure. Humans in industrialized societies spend an increasing amount of time in sedentary behaviors every day. This has been associated with detrimental health outcomes. Despite a growing interest in the health effects of sedentary behavior at work, associations remain unclear, plausibly due to poor and diverse methods for assessing sedentary behavior. Thus, good practice guidance for researchers and practitioners on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior are needed. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical guidance for practitioners and researchers on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior. Ambulatory systems for use in field applications (wearables) are a promising approach for sedentary behavior assessment. Many different small-size consumer wearables, with long battery life and high data storage capacity are commercially available today. However, no stand-alone commercial system is able to assess sedentary behavior in accordance with its definition. The present paper offers decision support for practitioners and researchers in selecting wearables and data collection strategies for their purpose of study on sedentary behavior. Valid and reliable assessment of occupational sedentary behavior is currently not easy. Several aspects need to be considered in the decision process on how to assess sedentary behavior. There is a need for development of a cheap and easily useable wearable for assessment of occupational sedentary behavior by researchers and practitioners.

Mots clés: Sedentary work; Wearables; Guideline; Sitting; Technical; Measurements

Domaines: Médecine humaine et pathologie

Andreas Holtermann, Vera Schellewald, Svend Erik Mathiassen, Nidhi Gupta, Andrew Pinder, et al.. A practical guidance for assessments of sedentary behavior at work: A PEROSH initiative. Applied Ergonomics, 2017, 63, pp.41 - 52. ⟨10.1016/j.apergo.2017.03.012⟩. ⟨hal-01639165⟩