Sit less, stand more: A randomized point-of-decision prompt intervention to reduce sedentary time

Nonworksite Interventions to Reduce Sedentary Behavior among Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Full study characteristics for these interventions are detailed in Table 1. Of the thirteen studies, seven were randomized controlled trials (1, 3, 9, 14, 16, 17, 22), five utilized a single-sample ‘pre-post’ design (4, 10, 11, 18, 23), and one used a quasi-experimental (non-randomized) design consisting of a post hoc addition to a larger observational study (15). …”

“…Sample sizes ranged from n=9 (23) to n=819 (17). Although only adults were included, some studies focused specifically on either younger (18–40 years) (3, 9) or older adults (≥60 years) (10, 11, 18); therefore, mean age ranged greatly between studies (mean ages: 20.1 years to 74.3 years).…”

“…Study characteristics for the randomized controlled trials (n=7) as they relate to the Delphi scale can be found in Table 2. While no trial received a score of 7 out of 7, four received a score of 6 out of 7 (1, 3, 16, 22), two scored a 4 out of 7 (9, 14), and one received a score of 2 out of 7 (17). …”

“…Of the studies that did specifically give participants explicit time targets, they varied from reducing TV viewing time by 50% (22), interrupting sitting time every 20 (23), 30 (1, 4), or 60–120 minutes (4), accumulating 30 additional sit-to-stand transitions per day (16), to two (16) or three hours (14) of total daily sedentary reduction. The duration of these interventions also varied greatly among studies, ranging from one study utilizing a one-time, one hour session (17), four studies with interventions lasting one week (11, 14, 15, 18), and one study lasting 12 months (3). …”

“…Thus, we chose not to make assumptions that these interventions were based on a particular theory and were therefore not included in our quality assessment. Six of the studies reviewed utilized a technological component as the basis of their intervention (3, 4, 14, 15, 22, 23), three (1, 17, 18) utilized behavior change techniques such as goal setting/education and point-of-decision-prompt, whereas four studies (9–11, 16) utilized both of these constructs. Those utilizing technology typically used a smartphone or PC-based application (4, 14–16, 23), while three studies used wearable technology designed to provide notification in the form of haptic feedback (alerting through vibration) (3, 9, 23) when subject had been sedentary for a prolonged, uninterupted time period (typically ≥30 minutes).…”