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SYDNEY - A New Zealand study has warned that that office workers are at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT)from sitting immobile at their desks.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper says sitting immobile at a desk for hours at a time will be revealed as a serious risk factor for so-called "economy class syndrome".
It says a study to be presented at the annual conference of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand later this month has found prolonged immobility at work is the most common factor shared by DVT patients.
Researchers found one in three people attending an outpatient clinic reported sitting for eight hours or longer before suffering a venous thromboembolism.
The worst-affected were managers, IT workers and taxi drivers, according to the research from the Medical Research Institute in Wellington.
DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs, which may cause death if untreated.
Symptoms include pain, swelling, redness and dilated surface veins seen on the skin.
Reg Lord, professor of surgery at the University of Western Sydney and a leading expert in thrombosis, told The Sunday Telegraph that sedentary workers were at risk because the sitting position impeded blood flow.
But he said workers would generally feel warning signs such as stiff or fidgety legs that should encourage them to get up and move around.
- AAP
* An earlier version of this story wrongly stated that office workers were at greater risk than long-distance air travellers. The study found that 34 per cent of people presenting at Wellington Hospital with blood clots reported sitting for long hours in the office whereas only 21 per cent had recently been on a flight of more than four hours. However, the report did not take into account the fact that the former group would have been drawn from a far greater number of people than the latter.
