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Sedentary behavior is defined as sitting or lying with low energy expenditure. Humans in industrialized societies spend an increasing amount of time in sedentary behaviors every day. This has been associated with detrimental health outcomes. Despite a growing interest in the health effects of sedentary behavior at work, associations remain unclear, plausibly due to poor and diverse methods for assessing sedentary behavior. Thus, good practice guidance for researchers and practitioners on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior are needed. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical guidance for practitioners and researchers on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior. Ambulatory systems for use in field applications (wearables) are a promising approach for sedentary behavior assessment. Many different small-size consumer wearables, with long battery life and high data storage capacity are commercially available today. However, no stand-alone commercial system is able to assess sedentary behavior in accordance with its definition. The present paper offers decision support for practitioners and researchers in selecting wearables and data collection strategies for their purpose of study on sedentary behavior. Valid and reliable assessment of occupational sedentary behavior is currently not easy. Several aspects need to be considered in the decision process on how to assess sedentary behavior. There is a need for development of a cheap and easily useable wearable for assessment of occupational sedentary behavior by researchers and practitioners., QC 20220621

It is well documented that spending large amounts of time each day in sedentary behaviour is associated with increased risks of a variety of health impairments. The time engaged in sedentary behaviours is generally high in Europe, and has increased over recent decades during both work and leisure. This has resulted in considerable research and societal attention over the last decade. Sedentary behaviour in the workplace varies between occupations. It is high among office workers, and is likely to be high for job groups with lower education with constrained sittingbased working tasks like long-haul drivers and surveillance work in manufacturing. However, the question of whether spending large amounts of time in occupational sedentary behaviour is a causal risk factor for health impairments remains to be settled. An important reason for this could be the poor validity and reliability of many of the methods used to assess sedentary behaviour such as self-report and interviews. Another reason might be that the sedentary behaviour is often not measured in accordance with its proposed definition " any waking behaviour characterised by a low energy expenditure (≤1.5 METs) while in a sitting or reclining posture". Measurements of sedentary behaviour should therefore capture its two main components, namely posture and energy expenditure. Observational methods are also used to assess sedentary behaviour, but they are costly, time-consuming, and may lead to observational-bias. Measurements using wearable devices ("wearables") are thus recommended due to their objective nature, and their ability to be relatively low cost and to have little impact on the daily life of the participant. Numerous suitable small wearables, with long battery life and high data storage capacity, have become commercially available in recent years. However, none of the commercially available wearables can independently assess occupational sedentary behaviour in accordance with its definition (i.e. a sit

Sedentary behavior is defined as sitting or lying with low energy expenditure. Humans in industrialized societies spend an increasing amount of time in sedentary behaviors every day. This has been associated with detrimental health outcomes. Despite a growing interest in the industrialized world in the health effects of sedentary behavior at work, associations remain unclear, plausibly due to poor and diverse methods for assessing sedentary behavior. Thus, good practice guidance for researchers and practitioners on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior are needed. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical guidance for practitioners and researchers on how to assess occupational sedentary behavior. Ambulatory systems for use in field applications (wearables) are a promising approach for sedentary behavior assessment. Many different small-size consumer wearables, with long battery life and high data storage capacity are commercially available today. However, no stand-alone commercial system is able to assess sedentary behavior in accordance with its definition. The present paper offers decision support for practitioners and researchers in selecting wearables and data collection strategies for their purpose of study on sedentary behavior. Valid and reliable assessment of occupational sedentary behavior is currently not easy. Several aspects need to be considered in the decision process of how to assess sedentary behavior. There is a need for development of a cheap and easily useable wearable for assessment of occupational sedentary behavior by researchers and practitioners.