Examination Of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors And Objective Physical Activity At A South African Company

Abstract

PURPOSE: Ukumela impilo is a randomized controlled trial (PACTR201911656014962) investigating the effectiveness of adjustable sit-stand desks (environmental change) on sedentary behaviour and cardiovascular disease risk factors in South African office workers. The target sample (n = 120) will be randomized equally into control and experimental groups. Early baseline findings to understand anthropometric and cardiometabolic factors will be reported. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Participants were full-time employed office workers of a credit and information management company in South Africa. Standard protocols were followed for the collection of simple body composition, point-of-care non-fasting glucose, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) and lipid profile. Wrist-worn accelerometer data were collected on 7 days of wear time, measuring sleep and physical activity. RESULTS: We have recruited 37 participants with accelerometer data thus far, 65% (n = 24) are female. The mean BMI was 27.7 ± 6.6 kg/m2 while 29.7% (n = 11) were obese. The majority (73%) had elevated blood pressures (BP) (systolic BP ≥130 and/or diastolic BP ≥80 mmHg), while 13.5% (n = 5) participants had HbA1C levels ≥6.5%. The mean total cholesterol levels were 4.03 ± 0.82 mmol/L-1and only 10.8% (n = 4) had cardioprotective HDL levels ≥1.55 mmol/L-1. The participants spent 13.4 ± 21.7 minutes/day in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and slept for 7 ± 1.3 hours/night. Univariate analysis showed that MVPA was inversely correlated with total cholesterol (r = -0.33, p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results show obvious concerns around cardiovascular disease risk factors in office workers that can benefit from physical activity. Future investigation seeks to understand their sedentary behaviour patterns and examine the effectiveness of environmental changes to interrupt extended sitting time during work hours.