Effectiveness of a Workplace "Sit Less and Move More" Web-based Program in Spanish Office Employees (Walk@WorkSpain)

Effectiveness of a Workplace "Sit Less and Move More" Web-based Program (Walk@WorkSpain) on Occupational Sedentary Behavior, Habitual Physical Activity, Physical Risk Factors for Chronic Disease and Efficiency-related Outcomes in Spanish Office Employees

This study assesses the short and mid-term impacts of a workplace web-based intervention (Walk@WorkSpain, W@WS) on self-reported occupational sitting time, step counts, activity-related energy expenditure, physical risk factors for chronic disease and efficiency-related outcomes in Spanish office employees. Half of participants had access to the W@WS website program while the other half was asked to maintain habitual behaviour.

Rising numbers of people have to sit for long hours every day especially for work and transport (3401184). This sedentary pattern that has been detrimentally associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease markers (4604082). However, replacing as little as 10 minutes of sedentary time with the same amount of light or moderate physical activity is associated with substantial health benefits (i.e. reduction of the metabolic syndrome) (26635358).

Because eighty percent of adults in developed countries spend one third of their working day doing sedentary, desk-based tasks (24603203) -representing a high exposure to this established health risk- displacing occupational sitting with physical activity may be a feasible option for improving office employees´ health and therefore public health (26984326).

In this context, there is a need to develop and evaluate translational research, based on theoretically-derived strategies, that can be successfully embedded into workplaces (26984326).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Office employees (university administrative and academic staff) with low and moderate physical activity levels (0 to 3,000 MET·min·wk-1 according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Highly active office employees (>3,000 MET·min·wk-1 according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire)