Sit-stand workstation provision

The multi-component intervention will align with the World Health Authority's promotion of a healthy workplace model, which emphasises that best-practice workplace health interventions should involve an integrated approach involving organisation and individual level approaches to behaviour change (WHO, 2010). Thus, participants will receive a sit-stand workstation with additional support to use the sit-stand workstation.

Sit-stand workstation provision

Participants in this arm will receive a sit-stand workstation. They will not receive any support to use the sit-stand workstation, except some health and safety advice upon installation.

This arm is the control group. They will continue to use their usual seated workstation for the duration of the study.

The research compares the effects of a sit-stand workstation only and a multi-component sit-stand workstation intervention including individual and organisation-level approaches, with usual office-based working practice (no sit-stand workstation) over 12 months.

ActivPAL:

Sitting and standing will be measured objectively using the ActivPAL device. The ActivPAL provides reliable measures of total sitting time and standing time, and number of sit-to-stand transitions per hour (Lyden et al. 2012).

ActiGraph (GT3X+):

Physical activity intensity and duration will be measured objectively using the ActiGraph activity monitor.The GT3X reliably classifies physical activity intensity in free-living environments (Ozemek et al. 2014).

Activity diaries:

These dairies will be used to assess the type and context of physical activity behaviour. A text reminder will be sent to all participants once daily for the duration of the data collection period. Text message models have shown some success in increasing compliance to research (Armstrong et al. 2009).