After several studies asserted that sitting at work all day is slowly killing³ us, researchers at the University of Exeter and University College London took another look at the claims. The Washington Post reports:

 

Researchers tracked 16 years' worth of health data from 5,132 people in the Whitehall II study cohort. Participants reported their total time sitting and how long they sat during four different situations: at work, watching television, leisure time and non-television leisure time. Researchers also tracked time spent walking daily and on physical activity.

 

After controlling for a number of factors, including diet and general health, researchers found the overall mortality risk for these participants wasn't influenced by how long they sat or by the kind of sitting. And the researchers cautioned that too much emphasis on not sitting shouldn't take the place of promoting physical activity.

 

What's particularly interesting about the study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, is that researchers didn't just focus on sitting during the workday, but factored in all kinds of sitting-specific data as well as rates of physical activity. Their conclusion was that "sitting time was not associated with all-cause mortality risk." Basically, more elements are in play than just whether you're sitting down at work, and your levels of physical activity are the greatest health indicator⁴.

 

So what does this all mean? It appears that the act of working while standing up -- which has become a trendy thing to do, especially in tech offices -- doesn't help your health, if you're not actually exercising otherwise. If you never make it to the gym, you might as well just sit down. This is good news for the makers⁵ of treadmill⁶ desks, however.

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