Systematic review: occupational sedentary behaviour and common mental health symptoms

Adults accumulate high volumes of daily sedentary behaviour at work, which over time has been associated with negative effects on mental health. Poor mental health, in turn, is associated with increased errors, absenteeism rates, and reduced productivity. Despite this, few studies have examined how occupational sedentary behaviour relates to symptoms of common mental health symptoms.

To explore the associations between occupational sedentary behaviour and common mental health symptoms.

A systematic search was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines from CINAHL, Medline, PsycInfo, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science. The JBI checklist was used to assess methodological quality. The best-evidence synthesis was employed to explore associations between occupational sedentary behaviour and mental health symptoms. Synthesis categorized the measurement of mental health symptoms across the selected studies into four groups, including depression, anxiety, combined symptoms of depression and anxiety, and stress.

Five cross-sectional studies from Australia, Sweden, the UK, and the US were included. Overall, mixed results were found, including both positive and no associations between occupational sedentary behaviour and combined common mental health symptoms. The limited evidence currently indicates that there are no independent associations between occupational sedentary behaviour and depression, anxiety and stress.

Current evidence is insufficient to establish a definitive association between occupational sedentary behaviour and common mental health symptoms. However, this review identified important gaps that call for further investigation, specifically into the occupational domain of sedentary behaviour, understanding sedentary behaviour patterns across different occupations and considering job characteristics when exploring its relationship with mental health.