Editorial Team
Remote work has been linked to conditions such as less restful sleep, thrombosis, problems with relaxation and mental health disorders. This is the analysis proposed by the American newspaper The Hill.
As of March 2023, about 22 million U.S. workers were working entirely remotely, according to the Pew Research Center. The shift to remote work has changed the lifestyles of many working adults, including those with disabilities or who are caregivers of family members.
While working remotely, at home, is an advantage and convenience for many workers, clinical studies do not seem to support the spread of this working method.
A sedentary lifestyle, The Hill notes, can lead to long-term health problems. In 2008, about 31 percent of people ages 15 and older were “insufficiently physically active,” according to the World Health Organization, which estimates about 3,2 million deaths a year are related to inactivity.
A crisis that appears to have been exacerbated by Covid-related social restrictions and is potentially being made worse by remote working.
The average remote worker takes only 16 steps from their bed to their workstation, 54% of remote workers believe their movement during the workday has decreased by 50% or more in the last year. (2022)
A 2021 Stanford University analysis, The Hill also notes, found that between 2007 and 2016, the average time American adults spent sitting increased from 5,5 to 6,4 hours a day. By April 2020, 40 percent of U.S. adults were sitting more than eight hours a day.
One concern associated with a predominantly sedentary lifestyle is the possibility of blood clots. Sitting too long can increase a person’s chance of developing problems such as deep vein thrombosis, which can travel to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism or blockage of blood flow.
Another risk for remote workers is weight gain and possibly increased insulin resistance, with the associated likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Excessive screen time can also trigger clinical eye problems.
An All About Vision survey found that the average person working from home spends 13 hours a day looking at a screen. According to Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine: “If I work remotely and I spend five hours a day in meetings, that’s five hours of blue light exposure.”
“If I had worked in an office and met people in person, I would have needed to adapt my vision to see things further away and closer. Not to mention the problems related to the strong reduction in socialization and physical exchanges. In conclusion: companies and workers should not look shortsightedly at remote work, evaluating only some benefits, economic for the former and comfort for the latter, because around the corner there are much more important pitfalls of which, in the end, everyone pays the consequences.
