Sensor technologies to monitor sedentary behaviour in the workplace: a scoping review.

Abstract

Objectives. Prolonged sitting is now recognized as a major health risk for office workers and is a common target for workplace health interventions that encourage movement. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify and describe sensors that can be used to design responsive interventions targeting prolonged sitting and to evaluate them objectively. Methods. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE databases were searched. A total of 8520 articles were identified and screened for inclusion. A large language model tool was used to extract predefined data fields that were confirmed by the authors. Results. A total of 282 sensors were used in the 197 articles that met the inclusion criteria. The majority of these were accelerometer-based wearables; activPAL (n = 118) and ActiGraph (n = 60). Custom-made prototypes (n = 25) and non-wearable devices (n = 14) that measure behavioural variables (e.g., sitting and standing time, stepping, activity intensity and ergonomics) were identified. Conclusions. These findings highlight the dependence of most studies on accelerometer-based wearable sensors with their well-known characteristics. The use of non-wearable and emerging prototype sensors remains limited but offers potential advantages to the future studies. Relevant sensor considerations include user experience, cost, scalability and privacy concerns to facilitate broader adoption.