The simplistic idea that ‘sitting is the new smoking’ has taken a new hit with research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. According to the study of 7,300 Canadian workers over a 12 year period, those who were primarily engaged in standing at work were twice as likely as those who primarily sit to suffer from heart disease during a 12-year period. The usual caveats apply with the study, but even after taking into account a wide range of personal, health and work factors, the study concludes that people who primarily stand for work are over twice as likely as people who primarily sit on the job to have a heart attack or congestive heart failure.
The researchers followed 7,300 workers aged 35 to 74 in Ontario, who were chosen because they had initially been free of heart disease. These workers were also respondents to the 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey, which collects information on a range of personal factors, health conditions, health behaviors and working conditions. The researchers also collected data on job titles, which was used to account for those job that inherently involve a higher proportion of time spent sitting, standing, walking or a combination of all three as well as other body postures such as bending or kneeling.