Brief report
Point-of-Choice Prompts to Reduce Sitting Time at Work: A Randomized Trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2012.05.010Get rights and content

Background

Prolonged sitting is prevalent in the workplace and is associated with adverse health markers.

Purpose

Investigate the effects of point-of-choice (PoC) prompting software, on the computer used at work (PC), to reduce long uninterrupted sedentary periods and total sedentary time at work.

Design

Assessor-blinded, parallel group, active-controlled randomized trial.

Setting/participants

A convenience sample of office workers from Glasgow, United Kingdom. Data were collected April to June 2010, and analyzed October 2010 to June 2011.

Intervention

The education group (n=14) received a brief education session on the importance of reducing long sitting periods at work. The PoC group (n=14) received the same education along with prompting software on their PC for 5 workdays, which reminded them to stand up every 30 minutes.

Main outcome measures

Sitting time was measured objectively using the activPAL™ activity monitor for 5 workdays at baseline and 5 workdays during the intervention. The number and time spent sitting in events >30 minutes' duration were the main outcome measures.

Results

At baseline, participants spent 5.7±1.0 hours/day (76%±9%) of their time at work sitting. Of that time, 3.3±1.3 hours/day was spent sitting in 3.7±1.4 events >30 minutes. There was a significant difference between the groups in the change (intervention to baseline) of both the number (ANCOVA; −6.8%, p=0.014) and duration (−15.5%, p=0.007) of sitting events >30 minutes. During the intervention, compared with baseline, the PoC group reduced the number (paired t-test; −0.11 events/hour, p=0.045) and duration (−12.2%, p=0.035) of sitting events >30 minutes. However, there was no significant difference in total sitting time between groups (−4.4%, p=0.084).

Conclusions

Point-of-choice prompting software on work computers recommending taking a break from sitting plus education is superior to education alone in reducing long uninterrupted sedentary periods at work.

Trial registration

This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01628861.

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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