Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2021 Mar 17;21(1):528.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10582-6.

Working from home during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sweden: effects on 24-h time-use in office workers

David M Hallman  1 , Leticia Bergamin Januario  2 , Svend Erik Mathiassen  2 , Marina Heiden  2 , Sven Svensson  2 , Gunnar Bergström  2   3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Working from home during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sweden: effects on 24-h time-use in office workers

David M Hallman et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered national recommendations encouraging people to work from home (WFH), but the possible impact of WFH on physical behaviors is unknown. This study aimed to determine the extent to which the 24-h allocation of time to different physical behaviors changes between days working at the office (WAO) and days WFH in office workers during the pandemic.

Methods: Data were collected on 27 office workers with full-time employment at a Swedish municipal division during the COVID-19 outbreak in May-July 2020. A thigh-worn accelerometer (Axivity) was used to assess physical behavior (sedentary, stand, move) during seven consecutive days. A diary was used to identify periods of work, leisure and sleep. 24-h compositions of sedentary, standing and moving behaviors during work and non-work time were examined using Compositional data analysis (CoDA), and differences between days WAO and days WFH were determined using repeated measures ANOVA.

Results: Days WFH were associated with more time spent sleeping relative to awake, and the effect size was large (F = 7.4; p = 0.01; ηp2 = 0.22). The increase (34 min) in sleep time during WFH occurred at the expense of a reduction in work and leisure time by 26 min and 7 min, respectively. Sedentary, standing and moving behaviors did not change markedly during days WFH compared to days WAO.

Conclusion: Days working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden were associated with longer duration of sleep than days working at the office. This behavioral change may be beneficial to health.

Keywords: Corona; Physical activity; Sedentary; Sleep; Telework.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of participant recruitment and data collection; WAO: working at the office; WFH: working from home
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Self-reported changes (percentage of respondents) in workload, work tasks, expectations on availability during leisure, wellbeing, work performance, boundaries between work and private life, support from managers, and influence at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. N = 27
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mean time (minutes/day) during days working from home (WFH) and days working at the office (WAO) spent in sleep (blue), and in sedentary, standing and moving during work (orange) and leisure (green)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mean difference between working from home (WFH) and working at the office (WAO) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for each of the six ILRs (x-axis)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Sostero M, Milasi S, Hurley J, Fernández-Macías E, Bisello M. Teleworkability and the COVID-19 crisis: a new digital divide? In. Seville: European Comission. 2020.
    1. Burdorf A, Porru F, Rugulies R. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic: consequences for occupational health. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2020;3:229–230. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.3893. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bouziri H, Smith DRM, Descatha A, Dab W, Jean K. Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health? Occup Environ Med. 2020;77(7):509–510. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2020-106599. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ekelund U, Tarp J, Steene-Johannessen J, Hansen BH, Jefferis B, Fagerland MW, Whincup P, Diaz KM, Hooker SP, Chernofsky A, et al. Dose-response associations between accelerometry measured physical activity and sedentary time and all cause mortality: systematic review and harmonised meta-analysis. BMJ. 2019;366:l4570. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4570. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ross R, Chaput J-P, Giangregorio LM, Janssen I, Saunders TJ, Kho ME, Poitras VJ, Tomasone JR, El-Kotob R, McLaughlin EC, et al. Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18–64 years and Adults aged 65 years or older: an integration of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep. Applied Physiol Nutrition Metabol. 2020;45(10 (Suppl. 2)):S57–S102. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2020-0467. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types