Could standing desks help combat childhood obesity?

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Students at Pebble Creek Elementary are contributing data to research aimed at making children healthier.

Their only requirement is to stand at their desks when they feel like fidgeting during school hours. Pebble Creek third-graders are equipped with standing desks, which have the same function as those that some adults use at work.

Children can stand with a foot propped on a bar or take a seated position while doing schoolwork.

Researchers at Texas A&M said the goal is to better determine how to reverse childhood obesity. They said standing during the school day is a good start.

“The children in the controlled classrooms vs. the seated classrooms had a 5 percent difference in their BMI (body mass index) percentages,” said Mark Benden, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M School of Public Health.

Benden said his team put the standing desks in 24 classrooms across the College Station Independent School District and have seen remarkable improvements in the children's body masses and cognitive abilities.

“There's certainly a brain-body connection. Cognitive performance improves when they are allowed to squirm, wiggle, move. When we kind of suppress that, it's kind of against their natural nature,” Benden said.

But the study does have limitations.

“(That's) because we only observed the children during school time, and the one question is, what happens after school? If they stand more, will they be more active or less active after school?” said Hongwei Zhao, a biostatistics professor at Texas A&M School of Public Health.

Researchers are looking for more grants to further study the children, which means that widespread availability of the desks could be a long way off.

However, Benden hopes that the research will emphasize the urgency to make small changes and reverse a growing problem.

“We did not get here with just one issue. So it wasn't just food, it wasn't just less recess or PE, It wasn't just one thing, it's been a perfect storm. So we really need a quiver full of arrows to go after this problem. I’m hoping this is one of those arrows,” he said.

To view the research study on elementary school standing desks, click here.