Occupational Sitting
I was recently reading the article titled “Understanding occupational sitting: Prevalence, correlates and moderating effects in Australian employees” that was published in Preventive Medicine in 2014 and thought I would write about some of the key take home messages gathered from the article. For those of you would like to read the article in full, please click here to purchase this.
As an osteopath we are dealing with clients on a daily basis who present to the clinic with musculoskeletal complaints that may be aggravated or maintained by sedentary work based tasks. For those of us who are also consulting in the occupational health and safety and wellness sectors, we also see daily the issues relating to sedentary work behaviours.
Key Messages
- Research within the public health sector is starting to focus much more on sedentary work behaviours.
- A high proportion of the population is at risk of sedentary behaviours.
- There is not a great deal of research looking at occupational sedentary behaviours to date.
- Psychosocial factors may not be a strong determinant for occupational sitting.
- Those individuals who are more educated are more likely to have positive attitudes towards sitting less and more likely to be working in jobs that require more sitting.
- Higher levels of sitting occurred in workers who were from a higher socioeconomic background.
- The most important contributors to occupational sitting are work related, followed by socio demographic factors (gender, age, education and income) and one health related factor (BMI).
- In future, giving people the opportunity to control how much sitting they do at work may result in a change in occupational sitting times.
- Further research is required to look at how psychosocial factors may impact on occupational sitting.
This blog was written by Osteopath Heath Williams of Principle Four Osteopathy.
Principle Four Osteopathy
Principle Four Osteopathy is one of Melbourne City CBD leading Osteopathy clinics. At the clinic we treat a wide range of clients, ranging from the office worker, exercise enthusiast to athlete. We have 3 experienced osteopaths working across both of the clinics.
The Melbourne City CBD clinic is located at 29 Somerset Place (basement), close to the corner of Elizabeth St and Little Bourke in the Melbourne City CBD. Our premises adjoin the Jon Weller Personal Training Studio, a fully-equipped training space which allows clients to combine their osteopathy treatment with exercise tutorials or specific training programs and rehabilitation.
The Docklands clinic is located at 717 Bourke St (Ground Floor), beneath the Channel 9 building near the walkway from Southern Cross Train Station to Etihad Stadium. Our premises adjoin Pilates on Bourke, a fully-equipped pilates and yoga training space which allows clients to combine their osteopathy treatment with exercise tutorials, pilates or specific training programs and rehabilitation.
To speak to an Osteopath or book an appointment at Principle Four Osteopathy, please book online or call 03 9670 9290.