Investigation of physical activity during computer-based work at home and in the office

Status:

ongoing

Aims:

Physical activity behaviour in everyday life and at work has long been the subject of extensive research. A lack of exercise and a high proportion of sedentary behaviour (e.g. sitting at work) are associated with a number of negative health consequences. Conversely, a certain amount of regular physical activity counteracts many risks and also has positive psychological effects.

The digitalisation of work has led to the widespread use of mobile screen work. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of working from home as a form of mobile work in particular and this will probably continue to play an important role for many employees. Studies conducted before the pandemic showed that the movement behaviour of employees varied depending on whether they were working from home or in the office. The general increase and broader implementation may manifest changes in physical activity behaviour that can have both positive and negative consequences. It is unclear which factors of working at the office or working from home are decisive for healthy and safe working.

Employers can only exert limited influence on working conditions (work and break organisation, working hours or working duration) when working from home. This makes it even more important to provide employers, occupational health and safety stakeholders and employees with adequate recommendations. The basis for this must be reliable findings from practical experience gained in both locations (office and home office).

For this reason, in a field study, hybrid employees are interviewed about various factors during a real working week with home office work and work in the office. In addition, the movement behaviour of the participants will be measured and evaluated using a CUELA Kat. 1 sensor. Activity before, during and after actual working hours, the organisation of breaks, the commute to work and any sporting activity are all of interest for the study.

Further objectives of this project are to process the scientific findings as a basis for practical recommendations for the design and, if necessary, improvement of physical activity behaviour in both settings and to identify research gaps for possible follow-up projects.

Activities/Methods:

First, suitable hardware and software for measuring movement behaviour is selected and procured. The requirements are high user-friendliness and robustness combined with high scientific quality. Standardised questionnaires and specially adapted protocols are used to record daily routines and other activities. The aim here is to minimise the effort for the test subjects and at the same time to obtain all relevant information in addition to the measured data. The survey should cover typical working days of an entire week, of which at least two should take place at work and two at home. An attempt is being made to collect data from a medium double-digit number of participants (approx. 40-50).

The evaluation will be based on previously published studies and will look at parameters of movement behaviour (steps, postures and posture changes, activities, METs, etc.) as well as daily activity (sleep, working hours, breaks, other activities, etc.). On the other hand, the aim is to identify whether there are factors that can be associated with healthier physical activity behaviour due to the possibly divergent daily organisation depending on the place of work. An ethics vote was successfully obtained for the project and the data protection concept was reviewed.

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