Effect of dynamic sitting on pain development in adult pain developers in sedentary environments – a randomized controlled cross-over trial

Worksite based prolonged static sitting postures can cause musculoskeletal pain. While the development of pain increases due to the constant growth of digitalization at work, numerous interventions to reduce prolonged sitting periods have been created. The effects of such interventions have not yet been properly examined. Thus, the "DynSit-Pain" project was initiated to investigate the influence of dynamic sitting on the pain development of pain developers in office environments.

Occupational Therapy Research and Development

Term: 01.04.2022 — 31.12.2024

With the growing digitization of work sitting times steadily increase, while work-related physical activity continues to be reduced. Consequently, prolonged sitting periods lead to pain in the musculoskeletal system in a large part of the population (so-called "pain developers"). Hence, several work-related health interventions have been developed within the last two decades to stop this trend. These interventions include concepts which interrupt sitting time, such as height-adjustable tables or movement promotion programs, but also dynamic seating options which allow to carry out so-called micro-movements while sitting.

Whereas the effects of height-adjustable tables or sit/stand workstations on physiological and cognitive parameters have already been researched very intensively, dynamic sitting has only rarely been investigated in clinical studies. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate the effects of dynamic sitting on the development of pain (primary endpoint) and on the subjectively perceived fatigue and work performance (secondary endpoints) of pain developers by means of a randomized controlled cross-over study.

FAIR statement:
The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Board of the University of Applied Sciences for Health Professions Upper Austria, and will be registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. After publishing the study findings for the scientific community the data will be freely accessible on ClinicalTrials.gov.