• Reporting an injury or illness
• Managing OHS
• Health & safety topics
• Your working environment
• Health & safety representatives
• Entry permit holders
• Work Health
• • Prevent
  • Promote
  • • Implementing effective health and wellbeing programs
    • Sedentary work
  • Participate
  • Case studies
  • Deliver work health

Further information

• Stand up Comcare
• Benefits of movement—be upstanding!
  

Sitting for prolonged periods is now a known risk factor for cancer, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and early death. People who sit for 11 hours or more a day are 40 per cent more likely to die within three years than those who sit for less than four hours (van der Ploeg et al., 2012). To reduce risk to workers’ health, both organisations and workers need to take action to reduce time spent sitting.

Did you know?

• Long periods of sitting can increase your risk of heart disease by 50%, even if you exercise regularly (Heart Foundation). 
  
• You spend more time sitting than you think. Many workers spend 76% of their time or around six hours sitting at work each day (Medibank, 2009).
  
• Breaking up sedentary time, simply by standing regularly for brief periods, can have significant health benefits (Baker IDI).

Stand Up Comcare pilot research

Comcare partnered with Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute to look at sit-stand workstations as a way to reduce sedentary time at work. The results of the pilot revealed:

• sitting time was reduced by 25 per cent following the four week intervention—this is equivalent to  two hours of a standard eight hour work day
  
• blood glucose levels were reduced in the intervention group at follow-up
• the intervention group significantly improved self-reported productivity.

For more information see the Stand Up Comcare pilot.

For tips on strategies to reduce sitting time at work see Benefits of movement—be upstanding!