The Impact of Treadmills and Cooler Environments for Office Workplaces on Ergonomics, Heating Energy Requirements, Performance, as Well as Back and Cardiometabolic Health

NCT07140536 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: EK 25-134
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 16
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The aim of the project is to gain insights into the effects of treadmills at a standing desk and reduced room temperature on back and cardiometabolic health, cognitive performance, thermal comfort, and the associated heating energy requirements of buildings. Healthy young men and women will spend four consecutive days in a controlled laboratory office environment after a baseline visit. During the baseline visit, volunteers are familiarized with the treadmill and start wearing a continuous glucose monitor. The four consecutive laboratory office days are each scheduled from 8:30AM to 04:30PM. In a randomized order, participants the first two office days either at 19°C or 23°C room temperature. The first office day of each temperature conditions is spent only sedentary, while for the second one is regularly interrupted with light walking on the treadmill. Otherwise, the daily routine and test battery will be exactly the same between days, including a standardized breakfast and lunch meal, an attention task in the morning, and frequent subjective thermal comfort ratings and blood pressure measurements. Interstitial glucose as well as heart rate and heart rate variability will be continuously monitored through wearable devices. Treadmill walking will be videorecorded.

Conditions

Healthy Male and Female Subjects

Keywords

sit less; break sitting time; ergonomics; cardiometabolic health; thermal comfort; office treadmill; glucose control; blood pressure; attention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Subjective thermal comfort rating

  At regular intervals over each of the four laboratory office days

• Interstitial glucose levels

  Interstitial glucose levels measured by continuous glucose monitors

  Continuously sampled every 15 min over all four laboratory office days

• Working memory assessed by the TAP (Zimmermann & Fimm, 2002) n-back task

  Participants view sequences of numbers and indicate whether the current number matches one presented one or two steps earlier. Outcome variables are accuracy (% correct) and reaction time (ms).

  10:00-11:00 AM during each of the four laboratory office days

• Divided attention assessed by the TAP (Zimmermann & Fimm, 2002) divided attention task

  Participants simultaneously perform a visual and an auditory discrimination task. Outcome variables are reaction time (ms) and error rates.

  10:00-11:00 AM during each of the four laboratory office days

Secondary Outcomes (10)

• Systolic and diastolic blood pressure

  at 09:00, 11:00, 12:30, 14:30 and 16:00 over all four laboratory office days

• Heart rate

  continuously from 08:30AM to 04:30PM over all four laboratory office days

• Heart rate variability

  continuously from 08:30AM to 04:30PM over all four laboratory office days

• Skin temperature

  continuously from 08:30AM to 04:30PM over all four laboratory office days

• Cognitive flexibility assessed by the TAP (Zimmermann & Fimm, 2002) task-switching module

  10:00-11:00 AM during each of the four laboratory office days

Study Arms (4)

Sedentary activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

EXPERIMENTAL

Sedentary activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

Other: Environmental temperature; Behavioral: Physical activity

Walking activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

EXPERIMENTAL

Walking activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

Other: Environmental temperature; Behavioral: Physical activity

Sedentary activity at lowered room temperature (19°C)

EXPERIMENTAL

Sedentary activity at lowered room temperature (19°C)

Other: Environmental temperature; Behavioral: Physical activity

Walking activity at lowered room temperature (19°C)

EXPERIMENTAL

Walking activity at lowered room temperature (19°C)

Other: Environmental temperature; Behavioral: Physical activity

Interventions

Environmental temperature OTHER

The office is day is spent in 19 or 23°C room temperature from 08:30AM to 04:30PM.

Sedentary activity at lowered room temperature (19°C); Sedentary activity at standard room temperature (23°C); Walking activity at lowered room temperature (19°C); Walking activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

Physical activity BEHAVIORAL

From 08:30AM to 04:30PM, the office is day is spent either fully sedentary or interspersed with light walking on a treadmill (60 min at 10:00AM, 15 min at 01:00PM, 15 min at 02:00PM, 15 min at 03:00PM, 15 min at 04:00PM).

Sedentary activity at lowered room temperature (19°C); Sedentary activity at standard room temperature (23°C); Walking activity at lowered room temperature (19°C); Walking activity at standard room temperature (23°C)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 40 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Physically active, healthy test subjects
• Participants who are able to understand the research project
• Adult test volunteers (aged \>18 and \<40)
• German language skills at B2-C2 level

You may not qualify if:

• An implanted pacemaker
• Participants who are unable to give consent/participants with a legal representative
• Age under 18 or over 40
• Pregnant participants
• Participants with a BMI \>28
• Participants with underlying diseases with significant functional limitations (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure)
• Reading and/or spelling disorders or combined disorders of scholastic skills (ICD-10 F81.0 - F81.3)
• Participants with a possible SARS-CoV-2 infection will be excluded from the study for the duration of the infection

Sponsors & Collaborators

• RWTH Aachen University: lead

Study Sites (1)

University hospital at RWTH Aachen

Aachen, 52074, Germany

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Exercise

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Officials

• Jan-Frieder Harmsen, PhD

  RWTH Aachen University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 11, 2025
• First Posted: August 24, 2025
• Study Start: July 3, 2025
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2025
• Study Completion: August 31, 2025
• Last Updated: December 16, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Time Frame: The study protocol is available from the 11th of August 2025 onwards for at least 5 years.
• Access Criteria: The study protocol can be requested via email to study officials.

Locations

DE (1)