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Standing Classrooms: Research and Lessons Learned from Around the World

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An Erratum to this article was published on 26 December 2015

Abstract

Children spend between 50 and 70 % of their time sitting while at school. Independent of physical activity levels, prolonged sitting is associated with poor health outcomes in adulthood. While there is mixed evidence of health associations among children and adolescents, public health guidelines in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada now recommend young people should break up long periods of sitting as frequently as possible. A potentially effective approach for reducing and breaking up sitting throughout the day is changing the classroom environment. This paper presents an overview of a relatively new area of research designed to reduce youth sitting time while at school by changing the classroom environment (n = 13 studies). Environmental changes included placement of height-adjustable or stand-biased standing desks/workstations with stools, chairs, exercise balls, bean bags or mats in the classroom. These 13 published studies suggest that irrespective of the approach, youth sitting time was reduced by between ~44 and 60 min/day and standing time was increased by between 18 and 55 min/day during classroom time at school. Other benefits include increased energy expenditure and the potential for improved management of students’ behaviour in the classroom. However, few large trials have been conducted, and there remains little evidence regarding the impact on children’s learning and academic achievement. Nevertheless, with an increasing demand placed on schools and teachers regarding students’ learning outcomes, strategies that integrate moving throughout the school day and that potentially enhance the learning experience and future health outcomes for young people warrant further exploration.

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Notes

  1. Activity permissive in this context refers to classroom modifications such as standing desks that permit replacement of sedentary behaviour with light or moderate physical activity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Auckland University of Technology, Centre for Child Health Research, National Institute of Public and Mental Health, Auckland, New Zealand

    Erica Hinckson & Saeideh Aminian

  2. Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jo Salmon, Bronwyn Sudholz & Nicola D. Ridgers

  3. Ergonomics Centre, Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M, Austin, TX, USA

    Mark Benden

  4. School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Stacey A. Clemes

  5. Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Bradford, UK

    Sally E. Barber

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  1. Erica Hinckson
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  2. Jo Salmon
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  3. Mark Benden
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  4. Stacey A. Clemes
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  6. Sally E. Barber
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  7. Saeideh Aminian
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Correspondence to Erica Hinckson.

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Funding

Erica Hinckson is supported by the Auckland University of Technology Strategic Research Investment Funding. Jo Salmon is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia Principal Research Fellowship (APP1026216). Bronwyn Sudholz is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence (APP1057608). Sally Barber is part of the Healthy Children Healthy Families theme of the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) Yorkshire and Humber. No other sources of funding were used to assist in the preparation of this article.

Conflicts of interest

Mark Benden declares a financial conflict of interest since his US-patented designs have been licensed by Texas A&M University to Stand2Learn LLC, and those designs have been present on several models of desks purchased for his studies. Erica Hinckson, Jo Salmon, Stacy Clemes, Bronwyn Sudholz, Sally Barber, Saeideh Aminian and Nicky Ridgers declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this article.

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Hinckson, E., Salmon, J., Benden, M. et al. Standing Classrooms: Research and Lessons Learned from Around the World. Sports Med 46, 977–987 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0436-2

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