Open office seating more healthy than private set-ups: Study

American researchers have found workers in open office seating experience less daytime stress and greater activity levels compared to workers in private offices and cubicles. The study was published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine on Monday.

It found that workers in open bench seating arrangements were 32 per cent more physically active than those in private offices and 20 per cent more active than those in cubicles, Xinhua news agency reported.

The researchers from University of Arizona evaluated 231 people who work in the US federal office buildings. They wore stress and activity sensors around the clock for three work-days and two nights.

Workers who were more physically active at the office were found to experience 14 per cent less physiological stress outside of the office compared with those with less physical activity at the office.

"This research highlights how office design, driven by office workstation type, could be an important health promoting factor," said Esther Sternberg, senior author on the study and research director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.