Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study
Abstract
Background: If teleworking is already associated with prolonged sedentary behavior, the literature lacks an integrating model with all putative influencing variables, as well as a sufficient number of participants to explore extreme sitting behavior. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the influence of teleworking on sitting time, considering main sociodemographic, occupational and lifestyle factors. Methods: The COVISTRESS study is an international observational study, using self-reported questionnaires (REDCap® software). We used linear and logistic multivariate model to assess the impact of telework on sitting time concomitantly with other sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle variables. Results: 6,653 respondents were included. The mean sitting time was 5.6 ± 3.4h/day, with 15.2% of respondents sitting for >8-14h/day and 1.6% sitting >14 hours/day. Workers who teleworked 0%, 1–25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, 76–99%, and 100% respectively sat on average 4.9 ± 3.2h/day, 5.8 ± 3.2h/day, 6.4 ± 3.1h/day, 6.5 ± 3.8h/day, 7.6 ± 3.5h/day, and 9.1 ± 4.3h/day, and the prevalence of workers sitting >14h/day increased from 1.5%, 1.9%, 0.4%, 3.2%, 5.4% to 10.7%. Compared with workers who did not telework, the risk of sitting 8–14 h/day was multiplied by 1.9 (1.2 to 3.0) for people working 1–25% in telework, by 4.7 (2.2 to 9.7) for people working 26–50% in telework, by 4.3 (1.5 to 12.2) for people working 51–75% in telework, and by 9.2 (1.6 to 51.5) for people working >75% in telework; the risk of sitting ≥ 14h/day was multiplied by 5.8 (1.07 to 31.5) for people working 51–75% in telework and dramatically increased by 34.3 (3.71 to 317) for people working >75% in telework in multivariate model. Conclusion: Teleworking is the strongest risk factor for high sitting time, with a marked dose-response relation. While several other sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle factors showed association with sitting time in univariate model, many of these relationships weakened or disappeared in the multivariate models, except telework that remained the most consistent determinants of sedentary behavior when concomitantly put together with all other variables. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04538586
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BibTeX
@article{nasir2026teleworking,
title = {{Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study}},
author = {Hijrah Nasir and Martine Duclos and Bruno Pereira and David Thivel and Jiao Jiao and Binh Quach and Reza Bagheri and Marek Zak and Ukadike Chris Ugbolue and Julien Baker and Alistair Cole and Martial Mermillod and Morteza Charkhabi and Maëlys Clinchamps and Frederic Dutheil},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0356764},
url = {https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05751364v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study
AU - Hijrah Nasir
AU - Martine Duclos
AU - Bruno Pereira
AU - David Thivel
AU - Jiao Jiao
AU - Binh Quach
AU - Reza Bagheri
AU - Marek Zak
AU - Ukadike Chris Ugbolue
AU - Julien Baker
AU - Alistair Cole
AU - Martial Mermillod
AU - Morteza Charkhabi
AU - Maëlys Clinchamps
AU - Frederic Dutheil
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/10
JO - PLoS ONE
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0356764
UR - https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05751364v1
AB - Background: If teleworking is already associated with prolonged sedentary behavior, the literature lacks an integrating model with all putative influencing variables, as well as a sufficient number of participants to explore extreme sitting behavior. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the influence of teleworking on sitting time, considering main sociodemographic, occupational and lifestyle factors. Methods: The COVISTRESS study is an international observational study, using self-reported questionnaires (REDCap® software). We used linear and logistic multivariate model to assess the impact of telework on sitting time concomitantly with other sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle variables. Results: 6,653 respondents were included. The mean sitting time was 5.6 ± 3.4h/day, with 15.2% of respondents sitting for >8-14h/day and 1.6% sitting >14 hours/day. Workers who teleworked 0%, 1–25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, 76–99%, and 100% respectively sat on average 4.9 ± 3.2h/day, 5.8 ± 3.2h/day, 6.4 ± 3.1h/day, 6.5 ± 3.8h/day, 7.6 ± 3.5h/day, and 9.1 ± 4.3h/day, and the prevalence of workers sitting >14h/day increased from 1.5%, 1.9%, 0.4%, 3.2%, 5.4% to 10.7%. Compared with workers who did not telework, the risk of sitting 8–14 h/day was multiplied by 1.9 (1.2 to 3.0) for people working 1–25% in telework, by 4.7 (2.2 to 9.7) for people working 26–50% in telework, by 4.3 (1.5 to 12.2) for people working 51–75% in telework, and by 9.2 (1.6 to 51.5) for people working >75% in telework; the risk of sitting ≥ 14h/day was multiplied by 5.8 (1.07 to 31.5) for people working 51–75% in telework and dramatically increased by 34.3 (3.71 to 317) for people working >75% in telework in multivariate model. Conclusion: Teleworking is the strongest risk factor for high sitting time, with a marked dose-response relation. While several other sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle factors showed association with sitting time in univariate model, many of these relationships weakened or disappeared in the multivariate models, except telework that remained the most consistent determinants of sedentary behavior when concomitantly put together with all other variables. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04538586
SN - 1932-6203
SN - 1932-6203
ER -