Abstract
Desk-based worksites are increasingly the focus of workplace health and wellbeing interventions. These interventions often utilize an educational session prior to participants engaging, yet limited studies have specifically examined the effect education has on compliance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect pre-intervention participant education had on the odds of compliance to a passive e-health software program designed to increase non-exercise activity thermogenesis throughout the workday. Participants in the experimental group (n=46) were exposed to multifaceted pre-intervention participant education one day prior to initiating the e-health software intervention for an eight-week study period. The control group (n=33) also received the intervention for eight weeks, however these participants received no education prior to initiation. The e-health software had a self-report progress recording function, which recorded all logged movement entries to gain frequency counts of per day usage. The experimental group logged more active days, more movements per day and was significantly more compliant to the e-health software (OR=1.87, 95% CI = 1.56-2.24). A pre-intervention participant education session, coupled with a passive e-health software program, was an effective mechanism for decreasing prolonged employee sedentary periods and increasing movement throughout the workday.
Highlights
Australian workplaces are sites for health interventions
Recent evidence suggests that prolonged sitting, which was once regarded as sedentary behavior, is a CVD risk factor independent of cardiovascular fitness [3,4]
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-intervention participant education, coupled with a coping strategy based on principles of increasing NEAT, on employees’ workplace behavioral health change
Summary
Australian workplaces are sites for health interventions. Similar to the rest of the world, the Australian population suffers from high rates of cardiovascular disease [CVD], which increases the risk of mortality and morbidity [1,2]. Recent evidence suggests that prolonged sitting, which was once regarded as sedentary behavior, is a CVD risk factor independent of cardiovascular fitness [3,4]. Changes to workplace environments and technology have lead to a decrease in non-exercise activity thermogenesis [NEAT] (>300 calories) for desk-based workers [7]. This behavior represents a known health risk for desk-based workers. Recently have health professionals targeted prolonged sitting in the workplace [8,9,10] Almost all of these interventions include education as a principle component, yet the contribution of education to behavior change remains largely obscure for prolonged sitting. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-intervention participant education, coupled with a coping strategy based on principles of increasing NEAT, on employees’ workplace behavioral health change
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