Comparison of 24-Hour Movement Behaviors in Desk Workers Across Office and Work From Home Locations

Work from home (WFH) is increasingly common, although 24-hour movement behaviors during WFH have rarely been studied. The goal of this study was to compare behaviors among WFH and office-based desk workers.

This was a secondary analysis of baseline data from the RESET BP randomized clinical trial among inactive desk workers from 2017-2022 ( N = 275). Twenty-four-hour behaviors were measured using wrist and thigh-worn accelerometers along with questionnaires.

WFH accumulated significantly higher device-measured prolonged sedentary behavior (+0.4 hr/d) and self-reported screen time (+0.5 hr/d) compared to office workers ( P < 0.05). WFH also had greater device-measured sleep duration (+0.3 hr/d), later wake time (+37 min/d), and lower wake time variability (-0.2 hr/d) ( P < 0.05).

WFH desk workers had different 24-hour behavior profiles compared to office workers. Future research should target interventions improving waking behaviors, while maintaining healthy sleep, for WFH desk workers.