Effect of auditory notification on sedentary behavior in office workers

Abstract

Recent research findings suggest connections between sedentary behavior, i.e. sitting, and various health risks. These findings indicate that not only the total amount of sitting is of importance, but likewise the duration of uninterrupted sitting, i.e. the duration of each sitting bout. The purpose of this research was to develop a device that could emit notifications in order to avoid long sitting bouts. The idea for the device was based on the sitting pad previously developed by Ryde and Gilson, a cushion that could be placed on a chair and detect sitting. After successful implementation of the device, it was evaluated with two participants during a period of two weeks each. During the first week it was used without notifications in order to gain baseline data about sedentary behavior. The baseline data was then compared to data from the second week with auditory notifications after 25 minutes of continuous sitting. As a result, participants increased the occurrence of sitting bouts shorter than 30 minutes by 17.7 and 6.5 percentage points. Thus, limited evidence suggests that the developed device is effective in changing sedentary behavior.