Study Finds Desk Jobs Raising Obesity Rates
New research released Wednesday finds that desk jobs are increasing rates of obesity, with many employers and staff unaware of the risks of sitting all day.
"Obesity is an epidemic, rising at troubling proportions," a Reuters report quoted John Evans, a senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health, as saying.
Researchers at the school worked with the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in conducting the EU-funded study, which examined exercise and work habits across the European Union.
The scientists noted a growing link between obesity and workplace conditions.Â
"As the workplace becomes our second home, our traditional diets have been swapped for fast food that is high in saturates," said Evans, one of the researchers involved in the study.
Worldwide, two billion people will be overweight by 2015, and more than 700 million will be obese, the researchers said.
"A basic cause of obesity related to the workplace is a lack of awareness of how serious this issue is among employers and employees," said Athens University epidemiology lecturer Athena Linos.
"Factors include work-related stress, overtime and desk-bound jobs,” she told Reuters.
The study found that 19 percent of Dutch citizens and 31 percent of Irish citizens perform no exercise at work, while 55 percent of Greeks and Croatians and 61 percent of French perform no exercise at all, Linos said.
A lack of designated areas for employees to store and eat their food, and a lack of onsite fitness equipment were among the factors increasing obesity, the researchers added.
They advise employers to adopt fitness incentives for staff and to offer occasional breaks from desk-bound routines.
"The word ‘fun’ is the most important word in promoting health in the workplace," Finn Berggren, president of the Gerlev P.E. and Sports Academy in Denmark, told Reuters.
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