Office workers risk DVT too
Office workers who spend long hours at their desk may be more prone to potentially fatal blood clots than passengers on long-haul flights, according to new research.
A study by researcher Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand in Wellington found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were office workers who spent long periods at a computer.
A total of 34% of the sample of 62 people admitted with blood clots had been seated at their desks for long periods.
This compared with 21% of patients who had recently travelled on long distance flights, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reports.
DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs. The clots can travel to the heart, lungs or brain, causing chest pain, breathlessness or possible death from a heart attack or stroke.
The condition has been dubbed 'economy class syndrome' because passengers sitting on long-haul flights without space to stretch out are considered most at risk.
Studies found clots formed in 10% of air travellers at high risk of the condition and 1% of all passengers.
Treatment is through blood thinning drugs, which can take months.
Beasley says some office workers who developed clots sat at their screens for 14 hours a day.
"Some of them were going three to four hours at a time without getting up," he says.
The problem is most common in the information technology industry and in call-centres, he adds.