New research suggests that office workers should stand on their feet for a minimum of two hours daily during working hours if they want to avoid the health risks of sedentary behavior, The Guardian reported.

Researchers said this quota should eventually be bumped up to 4 hours a day, breaking up prolonged periods of sitting with the use of sit-stand desks, standing based work, and regular walk-abouts.

"For those working in offices, 65 to 75 percent of their working hours are spent sitting, of which more than 50 percent of this is accumulated in prolonged periods of sustained sitting," researchers wrote in the study. "The evidence is clearly emerging that a first 'behavioral' step could be simply to get people standing and moving more frequently as part of their working day."

The guidance, which evaluates and distils the available evidence, was drawn up by a panel of international experts, was co-commissioned by the Public Health England and a UK community interest company (Active Working CIC).

It aims to make some core recommendations, amid the growing body of research linking prolonged periods spent seated, as opposed to being generally physically inactive, with a heightened risk of serious illness and premature death, and the burgeoning market of workplace products developed in response to the emerging evidence, The Guardian reported.

Some companies have already invested time and money creating a more active working environment for their staff. For companies that haven't made efforts to increase physical activity at the workplace, researchers suggests that they can decide when and how staff take breaks which involve standing and movement; and use desk designs and technologies that allow employees to do their job more easily either at their desk or from other locations in the office while standing .

The findings are detailed in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.