Associations of working from home with occupational physical activity and sedentary behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic.
OBJECTIVES
To compare physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) levels during work time between those who work from home (WFH) and at workplaces (no WFH), and by WFH subgroups.


METHODS
This cross-sectional internet-based survey included 1239 workers (mean age [standard deviation], 44.7 [13.7] years; 59.2% men) living in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Time spent sitting (SB), standing (light-intensity PA; LPA), walking, and engaging in heavy labor (moderate-to-vigorous PA; MVPA) during work time was measured using the Work-related Physical Activity Questionnaire. Workers reported weekly WFH percentages (eg, 0% implies no WFH and 100% implies full WFH), and WFH percentages were categorized into no WFH (0% WFH) and WFH (1%-100% WFH) groups. The WFH group was further subcategorized into 1%-25%, 26%-50%, 51%-75%, and 76%-100% subgroups.


RESULTS
Overall, 494 workers (39.9%) worked from home. During working hours, SB time was longer in the WFH group than in the no WFH group (mean minutes [% working-time SB]: 335.7 vs 224.7 min [74% vs 50%]). Significantly shorter LPA and MVPA times (%) were reported in the WFH group than in the no WFH group (LPA, 59.6 vs 122.9 min [14% vs 29%]; MVPA, 55.3 vs 91.9 min [13% vs 22%], all P < .001). Among the WFH subgroups, longer SB time and shorter LPA and MVPA times were observed in the highest WFH group (WFH 76%-100%) than in the WFH 1%-25% and 26%-50% subgroups.


CONCLUSIONS
Workers who telecommuted were less physically active and had longer sedentary during work time than those who worked at the workplaces.
['Fukushima|Noritoshi|N|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1819-554X', 'Machida|Masaki|M|', 'Kikuchi|Hiroyuki|H|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0510-1030', 'Amagasa|Shiho|S|', 'Hayashi|Toshio|T|', 'Odagiri|Yuko|Y|', 'Takamiya|Tomoko|T|', 'Inoue|Shigeru|S|']
D000328:Adult D000086382:COVID-19 D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D015444:Exercise D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D058873:Pandemics D057185:Sedentary Behavior D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D000085326:Teleworking D014041:Tokyo D017132:Workplace
physical activity sedentary behavior COVID-19 telework