Your job 'could be making you fat'

Office-workers have become less active over the last three decades and this decreased activity may partly explain the rise in obesity, according to a new study from the University of Montreal, Canada.

"Today, people eat better and exercise more than they did in the 1970s, yet obesity rates continue to rise," said lead author Carl-Etienne Juneau. "My hypothesis is that our professional life is linked to this seemingly contradictory phenomenon."

Juneau and his colleagues used several databases on the health of Canadians that included 17,000 to 132,000 respondents. He concluded that the lack of physical activity during office hours could explain why obesity had increased 10% between 1978 and 2004.

A surprise finding was the increased healthy attitudes toward transportation. "As a result of urban sprawl we expected to see more car-dependant people. Yet, both men and women increasingly adopted healthy behaviours such as walking and biking, which is definitely good news," said Juneau.

Juneau suggested that it would be best to integrate sport, work and transport to combat the inactivity and rising obesity. He also said the promotion and marketing of exercise could be tweaked.

"Exercise can't just be an individual thing anymore. We must focus on groups. For instance, there are now tax credits for parents who register their child in a recognised physical education course. A similar programme could be developed in the workplace for employees."

The findings were published in the online version of the journal Preventive Medicine.