Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study

Hijrah Nasir; Martine Duclos; Bruno Pereira; David Thivel; Jiao Jiao; Binh Quach; Reza Bagheri; Marek Zak; Ukadike Chris Ugbolue; Julien S. Baker; Alistair Cole; Martial Mermillod; Morteza Charkhabi; Maëlys Clinchamps; Frederic Dutheil

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0356764

Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study

Hijrah Nasir^*
, Martine Duclos
, Bruno Pereira
, David Thivel
, Jiao Jiao
, Binh Quach
, Reza Bagheri
, Marek Zak
, Ukadike Chris Ugbolue
, Julien S. Baker
, Alistair Cole
, Martial Mermillod
, Morteza Charkhabi
, Maëlys Clinchamps
, Frederic Dutheil^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review

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

Original language	English
Article number	e0356764
Number of pages	25
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	21
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356764
Publication status	Published - 10 Sept 2026

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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Nasir, H., Duclos, M., Pereira, B., Thivel, D., Jiao, J., Quach, B., Bagheri, R., Zak, M., Ugbolue, U. C., Baker, J. S., Cole, A., Mermillod, M., Charkhabi, M., Clinchamps, M., & Dutheil, F. (2026). Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study. PLoS ONE, 21(9), Article e0356764. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356764

@article{1ee718df2acc4f5d9502934a82b996b3,

title = "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{\textregistered} 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",

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 Ugbolue, \{Ukadike Chris\} and Baker, \{Julien S.\} and Alistair Cole and Martial Mermillod and Morteza Charkhabi and Ma{\"e}lys Clinchamps and Frederic Dutheil",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2026, Nasir et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.",

year = "2026",

month = sep,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0356764",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

journal = "PLoS ONE",

issn = "1932-6203",

publisher = "Public Library of Science",

number = "9",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior

T2 - the COVISTRESS international study

AU - Nasir, Hijrah

AU - Duclos, Martine

AU - Pereira, Bruno

AU - Thivel, David

AU - Jiao, Jiao

AU - Quach, Binh

AU - Bagheri, Reza

AU - Zak, Marek

AU - Ugbolue, Ukadike Chris

AU - Baker, Julien S.

AU - Cole, Alistair

AU - Mermillod, Martial

AU - Charkhabi, Morteza

AU - Clinchamps, Maëlys

AU - Dutheil, Frederic

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026, Nasir et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2026/9/10

Y1 - 2026/9/10

N2 - 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

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

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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0356764

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0356764

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 42721213

AN - SCOPUS:105050207217

SN - 1932-6203

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JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

IS - 9

M1 - e0356764

ER -

Teleworking as the main risk factor for sedentary behavior: the COVISTRESS international study

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