Relationship Between Work Performance and Exercise Load with Virtual Reality Active Workstation: Application to Type 2 Diabetes Prevention

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic, persistent disease of high blood sugar due to insufficient insulin sensitivity, and it is often accompanied by the three major complications of retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. Type 2 diabetes is mainly caused by a combination of lifestyle habits that include overeating and lack of exercise. In Japan, the number of people suspected of having type 2 diabetes is approximately 18.7 million people, or one in six adults. Exercise therapy is a method of treating diabetes by having the patient perform an appropriate exercise for an appropriate amount of time. In the case of type 2 diabetes, the goal is to maintain a heart rate of 100 or higher for at least 20 min, at least three times a week, for a total of at least 150 min. Currently, active workstations are being studied as one way to enable exercise therapy. An active workstation is a desk environment that allows patients to work while performing aerobic exercise, and it enables them to change their posture and improve muscle activation while working. Previous studies have not been able to balance physical activity and work when active workstations were used. We believe that one of the reasons for this is the inability to switch attention. Therefore, in the present study, we investigate changes in office work and performance by forcing the switching of attention using a VR (virtual reality) system to balance exercise and work, and we report on the relationship between the two. This experiment was conducted after typing speed was measurements without an aerobic bike. Results showed that typing speed was significantly faster when the VR active workstation was used, and typing speed increased after attention switching.