Documents Huysmans, Maaike A. 3 results

"Objective
This review addresses the effectiveness of workplace interventions that are implemented during productive work and are intended to change workers` SB and/or PA.
Methods
We searched Scopus for articles published from 1992 until 12 March 2015. Relevant studies were evaluated using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies and summarized in a best-evidence synthesis. Primary outcomes were SB and PA, both at work and overall (ie, during the whole day); work performance and health-related parameters were secondary outcomes.
Results The review included 40 studies describing 41 interventions organized into three categories: alternative workstations (20), interventions promoting stair use (11), and personalized behavioral interventions (10). Alternative workstations were found to decrease overall SB (strong evidence; even for treadmills separately); interventions promoting stair use were found to increase PA at work while personalized behavioral interventions increased overall PA (both with moderate evidence). There was moderate evidence to show alternative workstations influenced neither hemodynamics nor cardiorespiratory fitness and personalized behavioral interventions did not influence anthropometric measures. Evidence was either insufficient or conflicting for intervention effects on work performance and lipid and metabolic profiles.
Conclusions
Current evidence suggests that some of the reviewed workplace interventions that are compatible with productive work indeed have positive effects on SB or PA at work. In addition, some of the interventions were found to influence overall SB or PA positively. Putative long-term effects remain to be established."

"Workplace stressors have been indicated to play a role in the development of neck and upper extremity pain possibly through an increase of sustained (low-level) muscle activity. The aim of this review was to study the effects of workplace stressors on muscle activity in the neck-shoulder and forearm muscles. An additional aim was to find out whether the muscles of the neck-shoulder and the forearm are affected differently by different types of workplace stressors. A systematic literature search was conducted on studies investigating the relation between simulated or realistic workplace stressors and neck-shoulder and forearm muscle activity. For studies meeting the inclusion criteria, a risk of bias assessment was performed and data were extracted for synthesis. Results were pooled when possible and otherwise described. Twenty-eight articles met the inclusion criteria, reporting data of 25 different studies. Except for one field study, all included studies were laboratory studies. Data of 19 articles could be included in the meta-analysis and revealed a statistically significant, medium increase in neck-shoulder and forearm muscle activity as a result of workplace stressors. In subgroup analyses, we found an equal effect of different stressor types (i.e. cognitive/emotional stress, work pace, and precision) on muscle activity in both body regions. In conclusion, simulated workplace stressors result in an increase in neck-shoulder and forearm muscle activity. No indications were found that different types of stressors affect these body regions differently. These conclusions are fully based on laboratory studies, since field studies on this topic are currently lacking."