Increasing physical activity in office workers – the Inphact Treadmill study; a study protocol for a 13-month randomized controlled trial of treadmill workstations

Abstract

BackgroundSedentary behaviour is an independent risk factor for mortality and morbidity, especially for type 2 diabetes. Since office work is related to long periods that are largely sedentary, it is of major importance to find ways for office workers to engage in light intensity physical activity (LPA). The Inphact Treadmill study aims to investigate the effects of installing treadmill workstations in offices compared to conventional workstations.Methods/DesignA two-arm, 13-month, randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted. Healthy overweight and obese office workers (n = 80) with mainly sedentary tasks will be recruited from office workplaces in Umeå, Sweden. The intervention group will receive a health consultation and a treadmill desk, which they will use for at least one hour per day for 13 months. The control group will receive the same health consultation, but continue to work at their regular workstations. Physical activity and sedentary time during workdays and non-workdays as well as during working and non-working hours on workdays will be measured objectively using accelerometers (Actigraph and activPAL) at baseline and after 2, 6, 10, and 13 months of follow-up. Food intake will be recorded and metabolic and anthropometric variables, body composition, stress, pain, depression, anxiety, cognitive function, and functional magnetic resonance imaging will be measured at 3–5 time points during the study period. Interviews with participants from the intervention group will be performed at the end of the study.DiscussionThis will be the first long-term RCT on the effects of treadmill workstations on objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time as well as other body functions and structures/morphology during working and non-working hours among office workers. This will provide further insight on the effects of active workstations on our health and could fill in some of the knowledge gaps regarding how we can reduce sedentary time in office environments.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01997970, 2nd Nov 2013.

The ability to benefit from an intervention to encourage use of treadmill workstations: Experiences of office workers with overweight or obesity

“…This qualitative interview investigation was part of the Inphact Treadmill Study, performed in Umeå, Sweden, during 2014-2015 [5]. Umeå is a small university city in northern Sweden and at the time of this study had a population of 118,000 inhabitants.…”

“…Employees who were interested in participating were screened via a telephone call and a visit to a hospital, where blood samples were taken. They also completed questionnaires regarding, e.g., anxiety, depression, and stressrelated exhaustion disorder [5].…”

“…We have previously reported the study setup and results from the Increasing Physical Activity (Inphact) Treadmill Study. For this randomized controlled trial, we installed treadmill workstations in offices and compared use of this setup for 13 months to regular office work [5,6]. We have shown that it is indeed possible to increase time spent in physical activity in offices with such workstations [6].…”

Dynamics of Body Composition and Body Image of Sedentary Working Women Who Attend Zumba or Functional Training Programs: Pilot Study

“…R ecent research has shown that office workers spend between 66-82% of their work hours sedentarily (Bergman, Boraxbekk, Wennberg, Sorlin, & Olsson, 2015). Low energy expenditure due to lack of activities during sedentary work is a main reason for the increase in overweight and obesity (Church et al, 2011).…”

F3-3 Physical activity, sitting time and work-related musculoskeletal disorders in computer workers

“…Increasing PA and decreasing sitting time could improve functions of the body such as increase metabolism system and cognition and reduce stress and pain (Bergman et al, 2015). In contrast, few studies found that people had high PA also had a high risk for WMSDs (Auvinen et al, 2007;Heneweer, Vanhees, & Picavet, 2009).…”