Brief reportPoint-of-Choice Prompts to Reduce Sitting Time at Work: A Randomized Trial
Introduction
Sedentary behavior, time spent sitting/supine,1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality, independent of physical activity.2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 In addition, long uninterrupted sedentary events are independently associated with adverse health markers.11, 12 Employees sit at work for ∼77% of the time,13 mostly (51%) accumulated in periods longer than 30 minutes.14 Workplace interventions aiming to reduce sedentary behavior have not been reported, whereas those aimed at increasing physical activity do not decrease self-reported sitting time.15 The current study tested whether using prompting software on a personal computer (PC) used at work, in addition to education, reduced long uninterrupted sedentary periods and total sedentary time at work compared to education alone.
Section snippets
Design
This assessor-blind, parallel group, active-controlled randomized trial compared two groups of office workers. The education-only group received an education session on the adverse health effects of sitting for long periods. The point-of-choice (PoC) group received the same education along with prompting software on their PC reminding them to stand every 30 minutes.
Participants
A convenience sample of 30 healthy working adults was recruited via poster and e-mail in April–May 2010. All participants worked in
Results
Thirty participants were recruited (Figure 1). Of 278 workdays monitored, 11 were excluded from analysis because of a short reported workday (n=3); technical difficulties (n=3); or nonwear (n=5). Two participants were excluded because of insufficient data. The median number of workdays analyzed was 5 (21 participants) at baseline and 5 (18 participants) during the intervention. Measurement periods <4 days were 2 workdays (two participants, baseline) and 3 workdays (one participant baseline, one
Discussion
Measured objectively, there was no difference on total time spent sitting. However, both the number of and the time spent sitting in prolonged sitting periods (>30 minutes' duration) were reduced in the PoC-plus-education group and differed in comparison to the lack of change in the education-only group. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT to investigate the effects of an intervention specifically targeted to reduce adverse sedentary behavior in the workplace.
One workplace intervention
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