Design, rationale and analysis plan for the Stand Up for Health trial in contact centres: a stepped wedge feasibility study

Abstract

Background Contact centres are one of the most sedentary workplaces, with employees spending a very high proportion of their working day sitting down. About a quarter of contact centre staff regularly experience musculoskeletal health problems due to high levels of sedentary behaviour, including lower back pain. There have been no previous randomised studies specifically aiming to reduce sedentary behaviour in contact centre staff. To address this gap, the Stand Up for Health (SUH) study aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a complex theory-based intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour in contact centres. Methods The Stand Up for Health study has a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial design, which is a pragmatic design whereby clusters (contact centres) are randomised to time points at which they will begin to receive the intervention. All contact centre staff have the opportunity to experience the intervention. To minimise the resource burden in this feasibility study, data collection is not continuous, but undertaken on a selective number of occasions, so the stepped wedge design is “incomplete”. Eleven contact centres in England and Scotland have been recruited, and the sample size is approximately 27 per centre (270 in total). The statistical analysis will predominantly focus on assessing feasibility, including the calculation of recruitment rates and rates of attrition. Exploratory analysis will be performed to compare objectively measured sedentary time in the workplace (measured using an activPAL™ device) between intervention and control conditions using a linear mixed effects regression model. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first stepped wedge feasibility study conducted in call centres. The rationale and justification of our novel staircase stepped wedge design has been presented, and we hope that by presenting our study design and statistical analysis plan, it will contribute to the literature on stepped wedge trials, and in particular feasibility stepped wedge trials. The findings of the study will also help inform whether this is a suitable design for other settings where data collection is challenging. Trial registration The trial has been registered on the ISRCTN database: http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN11580369

Interventions for preventing back pain among office workers – a systematic review and network meta-analysis

“…We finally included 24 studies, reported in 38 articles ( 30 , 31 , 36 , 48 – 82 ), in our qualitative synthesis and 18 studies, reported in 29 articles ( 30 , 31 , 36 , 48 – 51 , 55 – 59 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 66 , 68 – 75 , 78 – 82 ), in our meta-analyses. We identified three potentially relevant ongoing studies, reported in four articles ( 83 – 86 ). The study selection process including the main reasons for the exclusion of studies after full text screening is shown in a PRISMA flow diagram ( 16 , 87 ) ( figure 1 ).…”

A mixed method evaluation of a theory based intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour in contact centres- the stand up for health stepped wedge feasibility study

“…The SUH study comprised of a preliminary outcome evaluation, undertaken to address objective 1, and a process evaluation to address objectives 2-4. The study used a stepped wedge cluster randomised feasibility trial design [30]. Eleven contact centres were recruited and randomised to one of five unique sequences (Fig 1 ), with each sequence corresponding to specific intervention start dates and data collection time points.…”

“…Focus groups and interviews for the process evaluation were scheduled to be conducted three months after the intervention period (objectives 2-4). Detailed information on the study design and rationale are reported elsewhere [30], and the original study protocol is attached as a S1 Protocol.…”

“…We aimed to recruit 27 participants from each centre for the outcome evaluation, and conduct focus groups with 6-8 employees, and interviews with those in relevant managerial positions (main point of contact for the SUH team) for the process evaluation. Sample size calculations and rationale are reported elsewhere [30]. All participants received the study information sheet and provided written or online consent (through the qualtrics xm platform) prior to participation in any form of data collection.…”

“…The aim of this study was to test the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the SUH intervention in UK contact centres [30]. Aspects relating to the acceptability and feasibility of the research design and data collection procedures will be reported separately.…”