A flexible work life such as telecommuting, is good for your health, researchers said.

    They found that if people have the ability to work from home and to compress work weeks, they are more likely to make healthier lifestyle choices, to exercise more and to sleep better.

    "Perhaps it gives people the time to fit in healthier lifestyle into their everyday regimen or maybe it just enables people to better manage their time," 

    Professor Joseph G. Grzywacz, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said in an interview.

    While the primary driver behind the flexibility movement was to help people, especially women, combine work and family, evidence suggests this is clearly not only a women's issue, Grzywacz, who reported the findings in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said.

    The researchers looked at Health Risk Appraisals from employees in jobs ranging from warehouse and production workers to executives at a large multinational pharmaceutical company.

    The firm used for the study is consistently recognized by Working Mother magazine as among the most family-friendly employers in the United States.

    "This isn't just about high-level office workers, these people perform a wide variety of tasks within the company," Grzywacz explained.

    He said the research shows public health departments and organizations that they could get something out of giving their employees more flexibility.

    But, he added, further research was needed to assess the long-term benefits.

    研究人員稱，遠程辦公等彈性工作模式有益于身體健康。

    研究人員發現，如果人們有條件在家工作，壓縮工作周的時間，那么他們就可以選擇更為健康的生活方式，鍛煉身體的機會增多，睡眠也會更好。

    威克森林大學醫學院的約瑟夫•G•格雷茲瓦茲教授在接受采訪時說：“可能彈性工作模式讓人們能有更充裕的時間來實現健康的生活方式，或者是它讓人們能更好地安排自己的時間。”

    格雷茲瓦茲教授說，彈性工作制最初是為了幫助人們（尤其是女性）同時兼顧工作和家庭，但有關證據表明這顯然不僅僅是女性的問題。該研究報告在《職業與環境醫學》期刊上發表。

    研究人員對一家大型跨國醫藥公司職員的“健康風險評估”進行了研究分析，職員涉及倉儲、生產和管理等多個不同的崗位。

    該公司連續被《職業媽媽》雜志評為美國最關心員工家庭的幾大公司之一。

    格雷茲瓦茲解釋說：“這并不僅僅針對管理層，而是涉及到公司各個崗位的員工。”

    格雷茲瓦茲說，該研究能讓公共衛生部門和相關機構認識到，給員工更多的自由其實能帶來很多益處。

    但他說，要評估彈性工作制的長期益處還需要開展進一步研究。
 
    Vocabulary:

    work from home:在家工作