Sit-stand desks offer little evidence of health benefits, review finds

Concerns about the effect that long periods of sitting can have on health has prompted a growth in workplace interventions such as sit-stand desks, but an updated review published by the Cochrane Library has found little evidence that they benefit health.1

Sitting time has been linked to increased obesity, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality, and an expert group, commissioned last year by Public Health England, recommended that office workers spend two to four hours on their feet each day.2

A team of Cochrane researchers looked at 20 studies that assessed the effect of different strategies to encourage people to reduce the amount of time …