Work group study says standing desks may not really be healthy alternative to sitting while working

Office chairs may once more regain its status as an important workplace furniture, following inconclusive study that standing desks are really good for a worker’s health. At best, the sit-stand desks could cut down workplace sitting only between 30 minutes and 120 minutes daily.

Researchers say in the updated Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, published on Thursday, that the lack of adverse effect is both on the short- and medium-term. For the long-term, there is no evidence on the effect, according to Online Library.

The review studied 20 research with 2,174 participants that looked at changed and interventions in the workplace. Because the studies had very small sample size and insufficient length of time to provide conclusive results, the scientists say most of the standing desks were only fashionable and unproven to have health effects, reports Fortune.

Dr Jos Verbeek, one of the researchers who reviewed the studies and a health researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, says there is no real evidence that standing up four hours a day is healthy. He even cites a 2005 study that doing so increased the risk of enlarged veins. Actually, Verbeek points out, “There’s evidence that standing can be bad for your health.”

The NCBI study had almost 10,000 Danish respondents in 1991. The research had a 12-year follow-up period and discovered 40 men and 71 women were hospitalised for varicose veins among the respondents whose work require them to stand or walk 75 percent of the time.

His statement appears to run counter against a 2012 study that sitting for over 11 hours daily boosts chances of an adult dying over the next three years by 40 percent. The research covered more than 200,000 adult Australians and concluded that prolonged sitting is a risk factor for all-cause mortality. Scientists recommended for public health programmes to focus on the reduction of sitting time while boosting physical activity levels.

Other studies says sitting for six hours or more increases chance of dying of cancer, similar to risks posed by smoking.