A pioneering project in Tasmania has found the health of office-based employees is improved by reducing the amount of time they spend sitting.

A partnership between the University of Tasmania and the Department of Police and Emergency Management over the past year sought to encourage physical activity in the working day. 

Research shows sitting for more than 4 hours each day can lead to increased risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

To overcome this health risk, researchers from the UTAS Faculty of Education designed and implemented Exertime, a computer application which prompts employees to undertake physical exercises suitable for the office environment.  

A group of DPEM employees were prompted by Exertime every 45 minutes to stand and perform a short burst of activity at their desks. On average this process took between 30 seconds to 2 minutes to perform and was repeated 8 to 12 times a day.

“Results showed that staff who regularly took small breaks from their desk duties to engage in physical activity improved their health and wellbeing,” said Dr Scott Pedersen, Lecturer in Human Movement at the Faculty of Education.    

“Employees who took part in the trial decreased their sitting time from 5 hours per day to approximately 4 hours per day.  This increase in standing time was associated with improvements in physical and mental health, blood lipid profiles (cholesterol, glucose and triglycerides), and job productivity,” said Dr Pedersen.

“Follow-up interviews revealed that participating in Exertime activities had additional benefits.  Office workers reported increases in energy and alertness,” said Dr Dean Cooley, a Human Movement researcher.

“The positive findings associated with the trial raise the potential for Exertime to be made available for all Australian workplaces,” he said.

“The Department of Police and Emergency Management is pleased to have been able to help pioneer the use of Exertime,” said the Commissioner of Police, Darren Hine.

“The trial has achieved its goal of putting small amounts of physical activity back into the working day for office based employees and it’s helped the department in its commitment to providing opportunities for personnel to keep fit and healthy,” he said.

The development of Exertime has been partially funded through the Tasmanian Government Healthy@Work project.  Healthy@Work encourages the development of workplace health and wellbeing programs within all Government agencies.  More information is available at www.healthyatwork.tas.gov.au

Tasmania Police Media
(03) 6230 2867