Assessing sedentary body movement with accelerometers and domain specific cognitive function during active sitting

The potential physiological and psychological consequences of active sitting are not self-evident. The purpose of this study was to determine how active sitting affects hip motion, as well as domain specific cognitive function. Thirty-seven participants sat for 10 min in three different sitting conditions including a chair with a backrest, chair without a backrest, and an exercise ball. Hip acceleration was monitored using an ActiGraph GT9X Link triaxial accelerometer, and cognitive function was assessed using three different tasks including typing, reading comprehension, and spatial direction estimates. A significant difference in hip acceleration was found between participants that sat on the exercise ball compared to a stool. Additionally, the participants sitting on the ball attempted fewer total direction estimates and fewer egocentric-based direction estimates than the participants who sat on the stool. There may be little or no cognitive benefit to active sitting for many typical work tasks.