Background: Prolonged sitting time in the workplace constitutes a significant portion of waking hours. Sedentary behaviour is associated with higher risks of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and all-cause mortality. Interventions to reduce workplace sitting, such as health apps, height-adjustable desks, and active breaks, have shown relative effectiveness in improving health outcomes. Among these, computer prompt interventions represent a simple and scalable strategy that can remind workers to take breaks and reduce sedentary behaviour. This study evaluates the effectiveness of computer prompt interventions to reduce sitting at work compared to no intervention or combined strategies.

Methods: Primary studies were searched in PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Scopus, and CENTRAL of the Cochrane Library. The search was conducted until December 2024. Keywords included terms like "sedentary behaviour," "computer prompts," "sitting time," and "office workers." Only randomized controlled trials (individual or cluster) involving desk-based workers aged 18 or older that evaluated computer prompt software were included. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool (RoB2). Mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for sitting time and secondary outcomes. Analyses were performed using RevMan and R software, and GRADE methodology was applied to assess the certainty of evidence.

Results: From 17,880 records, 18 studies involving 1164 office workers were included in the analysis. Ten studies focused exclusively on computer prompts, while 8 studies implemented combined strategies (e.g., computer prompts plus sit-to-stand desks). The median intervention length was 8 weeks, ranging from one to 24 weeks. Studies using only computer prompts included breaks lasting from 1 to 10 min every 30 min up to an hour. Combined strategies included breaks from 6 to 30 min every 30 min up to 3 h. According to objective measurements, the meta-analysis showed a significant reduction of 12.46 min/workday in sitting time (95% CI: -18.12, -6.80) and a significant increase of 1029.99 steps/workday (95% CI: 815.97, 1244). Secondary outcomes included work-related, musculoskeletal, and cardiometabolic outcomes favouring computer prompts but not statistically significant. The certainty of evidence for primary outcomes is rated low to moderate according to GRADE.

Conclusions: Computer prompt software interventions show effectiveness in reducing sitting time among office workers. However, more long-term prospective studies with larger sample sizes are needed to accurately determine the effectiveness of computer prompts on various work- and health-related outcomes.

Trial registration: The review protocol was registered in the Prospero database (CRD42021287870).

Keywords: Computer prompt; Office work; Sedentary behaviour; Sitting position; Sitting time; Workplace.

© 2025. The Author(s).

背景： 长时间坐在工作岗位上构成了清醒时间的重要部分。久坐行为与心血管疾病、肥胖和全因死亡率的风险增加有关。减少工作场所久坐的干预措施，如健康应用程序、可调节高度的办公桌和活跃休息，已被证明在改善健康结果方面相对有效。在这之中，计算机提示干预代表了一种简单且易于扩展的战略，可以提醒员工休息并减少久坐行为。本研究评估了与无干预或联合策略相比，使用计算机提示干预减少工作时久坐的效果。

方法： 在PubMed（MEDLINE）、EMBASE、Scopus和Cochrane图书馆的CENTRAL中搜索了一级研究文献。检索一直持续到2024年12月。关键词包括“久坐行为”、“计算机提示”、“久坐时间”和“办公室工作人员”。仅纳入涉及年龄在18岁及以上且评估计算机提示软件的随机对照试验（个体或集群）。使用Cochrane偏倚风险工具（RoB2）进行偏倚风险评估。对于久坐时间和次要结果，计算均值差异及其95%置信区间(CI)。分析采用RevMan和R软件完成，并应用GRADE方法来评定证据的确切性。

结果： 从17,880个记录中，共纳入了涉及1,164名办公室工作人员的18项研究进行分析。其中十项研究专注于计算机提示，而八项实施了联合策略（例如，计算机提示加上坐立交替办公桌）。干预措施的中位持续时间是8周，范围从1周到24周不等。仅使用计算机提示的研究包括每30分钟至一小时内休息1到10分钟的间隔。联合策略则包含每30分钟至三小时休息6至30分钟的安排。根据客观测量结果，元分析显示坐立时间每天减少了12.46分钟（95% CI：-18.12, -6.80），步数增加了1029.99步/工作日（95% CI：815.97, 1244）。次要结果包括与工作任务、肌肉骨骼和心血管代谢有关的指标，这些指标倾向于支持计算机提示策略，但统计上并不显著。根据GRADE标准，主要结果证据的确切性被评为低至中等。

结论： 计算机提示软件干预措施在减少办公室工作人员久坐时间方面显示出有效性。然而，为了准确评估计算机提示对各种工作和健康相关结局的影响，需要更多长期的前瞻性研究及更大的样本量。

试验注册信息： 该综述协议已在Prospero数据库中登记（CRD42021287870）。