title: Physical activity at work contributes little to patient care workers' weekly totals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the number of minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity at work in comparison to weekly total minutes in a pilot study of 50 hospital patient care workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Workers wore accelerometers during work and nonwork hours for 7 days, and completed surveys at the end of the seventh day.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although the participants reported on average 206 minutes of moderate activity at work, the accelerometers recorded on average 30 minutes of moderate activity at work. For the 7 days the accelerometers measured a total of 165 minutes of moderate activity. Self-reported fatigue and functional limitations were negatively correlated albeit weakly with measured minutes of vigorous activity outside of work.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physical activity at work on patient care units contributes a small fraction to these workers' weekly totals, and in turn meeting guidelines.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Environmental Health (Drs Umukoro, Arias, and Dennerlein), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass; Centre for Sport and Exercise Education (Dr Stoffel), Camosun College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Drs Stoffel and Sorensen), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass; Department of Occupational Health (Dr Hopcia), Partners HealthCare, Inc, Boston, Mass; Department of Health Systems Science (Dr Hopcia), University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Ill; Center for Community-Based Research (Dr Sorensen), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Mass; and Department of Physical Therapy (Dr Dennerlein), Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Umukoro
authors.forename: Oscar E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.forename: Sonja D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Stoffel
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hopcia
authors.forename: Glorian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: Jack T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Dennerlein
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D000328:Adult; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009732:Nursing Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017132:Workplace