People walking on treadmill desks perform cognitive tasks nearly as well as those at sitting desks, a new study has found.
Research showing the adverse effects of sedentary office work has given standing desks and treadmill desks new attention.
Brigham Young University researchers have found that people on treadmill desks perform cognitive tasks nearly as well as those at sitting desks, despite the fact that they are walking.
Researchers compared the cognitive performance of healthy adults sitting at a desk to those using treadmill desks while carrying out the same tasks.
They found the walkers showed slight decreases in processing speed, attention and typing words per minute - tasks that require fine-motor skills or heavy concentration - but the overall drop was not enough to warrant major concern.
"Though statistically significant, we are not talking about major differences between the treadmill walking and sitting conditions," said exercise science professor James LeCheminant.
"Rather, these are very modest differences," said LeCheminant.
The health benefits of a walking desk shown by previous research appear to outweigh the slight drop in productivity that comes with such a setup, researchers said.
LeCheminant and his colleague, neuroscientist Michael Larson, strongly support the use of treadmill desks, sit-stand desks, and any other efforts to safely improve physical activity in the work place.
For the study, researchers assessed 75 healthy adults, half using treadmill desks, half using regular desks, for a 45-minute period.
The 37 people on treadmill desks walked at a speed of 2.4 kph. Walkers saw a 9 per cent drop in cognitive processing speed, attention and working memory and a 13-word-per-minute drop in typing.
The findings show that treadmill desks may be most appropriate to use during tasks that are less cognitive-demanding (checking email) or do not require a great deal of fine-motor skills (non-typing tasks).
Treadmill walkers retained their learning just as well as sitters, even if it took them longer to process it in the first place, researchers found.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
