Interventions to reduce sedentary behavior and increase physical activity during productive work: a systematic review by Commissaris DACM, Huysmans MA, Mathiassen SE, Srinivasan D, Koppes LLJ, Hendriksen IJM This systematic review on interventions intended to change workers' sedentary behavior or physical activity is the first to focus on initiatives that can be implemented during productive work and that change behavior while workers perform their usual jobs. Thus, the review offers decision support when selecting effective interventions for improved health and well-being that are compatible with maintained production.Key terms: activity-permissive workstation; alternative workstation; best-evidence synthesis; intervention; personalized behavioral intervention; physical activity; physical inactivity; productive work; review; sedentary behavior; sitting; stair use; systematic review; workplace This article in PubMed: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26683116 Additional materialPlease note that there is additional material available belonging to this article on the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health -website. Scand J Work Environ Health 2016, vol 42, no 3 181Review Scand J Work Environ Health 2016;42(3):181-191. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3544 Interventions to reduce sedentary behavior and increase physical activity during productive work: a systematic review by Dianne ACM Commissaris, PhD,1,2,3 Maaike A Huysmans, PhD,4, 5 Svend Erik Mathiassen, Professor, 2 Divya Srinivasan, PhD, 2 Lando LJ Koppes, PhD,1,6 Ingrid JM Hendriksen, PhD 1,5 Commissaris DACM, Huysmans MA, Mathiassen SE, Srinivasan D, Koppes LLJ, Hendriksen IJM. Interventions to reduce sedentary behavior and increase physical activity during productive work: a systematic review. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2016;42(3): 181-191. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3544 Objectives Many current jobs are characterized by sedentary behavior (SB) and lack of physical activity (PA).This review addresses the effectiveness of workplace interventions that are implemented during productive work and are intended to change workers' SB and/or PA. MethodsWe searched Scopus for articles published from 1992 until 12 March 2015. Relevant studies were evaluated using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies and summarized in a best-evidence synthesis. Primary outcomes were SB and PA, both at work and overall (ie, during the whole day); work performance and health-related parameters were secondary outcomes. ResultsThe review included 40 studies describing 41 interventions organized into three categories: alternative workstations (20), interventions promoting stair use (11), and personalized behavioral interventions (10). Alternative workstations were found to decrease overall SB (strong evidence; even for treadmills separately); interventions promoting stair use were found to increase PA at work while personalized behavioral interventions increased overall PA (both with moderate evidence). There was moderate evidence to show alternative workstations influenced neithe...

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Anticipatory control of motor output enables fast and fluent execution of movement. This applies also to motor tasks in which the performance of movement brings about a disturbance to balance that is not completely predictable. For example, in bi-manual lifting the pick-up of a load causes a forward shift of the centre of mass with consequent disturbance of posture. Anticipatory postural adjustments are scaled to the expected magnitude of the perturbation and are initiated well before the availability of sensory information characterising the full nature of the postural disturbance. However, when the postural disturbance unexpectedly changes, the anticipatory adjustment of joint torques is not equilibrated and may result in a disturbance to balance. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that apart from anticipatory postural adjustments, corrective responses after load pick-up are used to further compensate the postural disturbance. In this study it was examined whether the central nervous system (CNS) assembles a strategy that incorporates both anticipatory control and corrective responses, in which the magnitude of the anticipatory postural adjustments depends on the perceived level of predictability of the postural disturbance. Subjects performed series of lifts in which the magnitude of the load was never revealed to the subject. Two boxes equal in size and colour, but different in mass (6 and 16 kg), were used. Differences in expectation were created by several lifts with the 16-kg load before the 6-kg box was presented. It was observed that the number of strong corrective responses (stepping) varied with the number of 16-kg trials that formed the prior experience when the final 6-kg trial was presented. The follow-up question was whether control relied more on anticipation in the stepping trials, compared with trials in which such gross signs of imbalance were absent. In this study it was shown that subjects when stepping (i) exhibited differential anticipatory postural adjustments in comparison with 6-kg trials in which expectation was not shaped by preceding 16-kg trials, and (ii) scaled the anticipatory postural adjustments similar to those preceding lift-off of the 16-kg trial preceding it. These findings emphasise the programmed nature of the anticipatory postural adjustments and the ability of the CNS to selectively tune the anticipatory postural adjustments to stored information gained during the previous lift(s).

Increasing evidence is being found for the association of health risk factors with work-related physical inactivity. An increasing number of people are being exposed to this form of inactivity, and as a result, various interventions aimed at increasing physical activity during working hours are being developed. This study aims to investigate the differences in postural, muscular and physical activities resulting from two dynamic workstations, namely an elliptical trainer and a treadmill workstation, compared with a conventional sitting and standing workstation. Twelve participants completed five standardised office tasks in a laboratory setting at all workstations. No significant effect was found regarding changes in posture and the muscular activity was only significantly higher for the trapezius muscle (50th percentile: 8.1 %MVC) at the dynamic workstations. For the dynamic workstations, physical activity ranged from 4.0 to 14.9 × 10(-2) g, heart rate from 14.3 to 27.5 %HRR and energy expenditure from 1.8 to 3.1 METs. Practitioner Summary: Work-related physical inactivity is associated with health risk factors. In this study, physiological and postural effects of dynamic workstations were assessed in comparison to conventional workstations. No significant effects were found regarding changes in posture and muscular activity. Physical activity, heart rate and energy expenditure increased for the dynamic workstations.