Classrooms with Standing Desks can Boost Activity Levels in Children

Standing desks, which have been introduced in several work offices to encourage adults to sit less, can also boost activity levels in children, a new review is reporting.

"There's a lot of research out there about integrating standing desks into the workplace that generally found favorable impacts on reduced sitting time and increasing standing time," said study author Karl Minges, a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Nursing in Orange, CT. "In the student population ... it seemed to be a natural fit. "Our research adds to that evidence, showing schools can be a good place to introduce interventions to improve students' health as well as their minds."

For this study, Minges and colleagues analyzed the findings from eight international studies that focused on children between the ages of five and 18. In these studies, the researchers had examined the effects of sit-to-stand desks that did or did not include a stool. The researchers of the review noted that the designs of the desks from these studies were very different.

Regardless of the variation in designs, in four of the studies, the researchers found that using standing desks reduced the total amount of time spent sitting by one hour per day. Two studies concluded that standing desks could increase the proportion of time that children spent standing by nearly 31 percent.

"One study said that more than 32 additional calories per hour were burned [using standing desks], which would be the equivalent of 225 additional calories per school day, similar to [total calories burned while] roller skating or skateboarding after school," Minges said reported by Healthy via Philly.com.

He added in an email to Reuters, "In schools, children spend over 50 percent of the school day sitting - traveling to school, during class, at lunch, sometimes during recess, traveling home after school, etc. While one cannot easily reduce sitting time at lunch or during transportation, changing the classroom environment to be more conducive to standing seems like low-hanging fruit."

Getting kids active and moving can help prevent childhood obesity rates from growing.
The study was published in the journal, Pediatrics.