Abstract
Office-based workers spend a large proportion of the day sitting and tend to have low overall activity levels. Despite some evidence that features of the external physical environment are associated with physical activity, little is known about the influence of the spatial layout of the internal environment on movement, and the majority of data use self-report. This study investigated associations between objectively-measured sitting time and activity levels and the spatial layout of office floors in a sample of UK office-based workers. Participants wore activPAL accelerometers for at least three consecutive workdays. Primary outcomes were steps and proportion of sitting time per working hour. Primary exposures were office spatial layout, which was objectively-measured by deriving key spatial variables: ‘distance from each workstation to key office destinations’, ‘distance from participant’s workstation to all other workstations’, ‘visibility of co-workers’, and workstation ‘closeness’. 131 participants from 10 organisations were included. Fifty-four per cent were female, 81% were white, and the majority had a managerial or professional role (72%) in their organisation. The average proportion of the working hour spent sitting was 0.7 (SD 0.15); participants took on average 444 (SD 210) steps per working hour. Models adjusted for confounders revealed significant negative associations between step count and distance from each workstation to all other office destinations (e.g., B = −4.66, 95% CI: −8.12, −1.12, p < 0.01) and nearest office destinations (e.g., B = −6.45, 95% CI: −11.88, −0.41, p < 0.05) and visibility of workstations when standing (B = −2.35, 95% CI: −3.53, −1.18, p < 0.001). The magnitude of these associations was small. There were no associations between spatial variables and sitting time per work hour. Contrary to our hypothesis, the further participants were from office destinations the less they walked, suggesting that changing the relative distance between workstations and other destinations on the same floor may not be the most fruitful target for promoting walking and reducing sitting in the workplace. However, reported effect sizes were very small and based on cross-sectional analyses. The approaches developed in this study could be applied to other office buildings to establish whether a specific office typology may yield more promising results.
Highlights
The health benefits of regular and sustained participation in physical activity are well established and include reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, some cancers, mental illness and all-cause mortality [1,2,3]
Once an organisation agreed to participate in the study, all office workers in participating buildings were emailed a Movement at Work Survey to complete anonymously
The activPAL has been successfully used in studies of office workers and has been validated for step count and time spent sitting [25]
Summary
The health benefits of regular and sustained participation in physical activity are well established and include reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, some cancers, mental illness and all-cause mortality [1,2,3]. A meta-analysis including over 1 million adults suggests that even with this level of activity, the risk from high levels of sedentary behaviour is lessened but not eliminated [8]. Office-based workers have high levels of sitting time, often coupled with low levels of physical activity. For 131 UK office workers in the Active Buildings study, objectively-measured levels of sedentary time were extremely high in work time [11]. In such low-active individuals, small increases in physical activity could benefit health, so strategies to increase activity and reduce sitting time are required urgently
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