The more a man sits at his desk, the more likely he is to be overweight, says a new Australian study suggesting that the workplace may play an important role in the growing obesity epidemic.
“The current findings present the sedentary workplace as a potentially hostile environment in terms of overweight and obesity,” according to authors of the study, reported in the August issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Lead researcher Kerry Mummery, Ph.D, of Queensland University, and colleagues collected data on 1,579 Australian men and women in full-time jobs. They looked at age, sex, occupation, physical activity, occupational sitting time and body mass index, or BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight. People with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, and 30 or greater, obese.
The researchers found that the workers sat an average of more than 3 hours a day, with 25 percent sedentary at the job more than six hours a day. Men sat an average of 209 minutes on the job, 20 minutes more than women.
Men’s twenty extra minutes off their feet appear to make a difference. Statistical analyses showed significant associations between occupational sitting time and a BMI of 25 or above in men but not in women.
“Time and productivity lost due to chronic diseases associated with overweight and obesity may make it financially worthwhile for employers to be more proactive in the health of their employees by promoting physical activity at work,” the authors suggest.