title: Workplace sitting and height-adjustable workstations: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Desk-based office employees sit for most of their working day. To address excessive sitting as a newly identified health risk, best practice frameworks suggest a multi-component approach. However, these approaches are resource intensive and knowledge about their impact is limited.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the efficacy of a multi-component intervention to reduce workplace sitting time, to a height-adjustable workstations-only intervention, and to a comparison group (usual practice).
  
  
  METHODS
  Three-arm quasi-randomized controlled trial in three separate administrative units of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Data were collected between January and June 2012 and analyzed the same year.
  
  
  METHODS
  Desk-based office workers aged 20-65 (multi-component intervention, n=16; workstations-only, n=14; comparison, n=14).
  
  
  METHODS
  The multi-component intervention comprised installation of height-adjustable workstations and organizational-level (management consultation, staff education, manager e-mails to staff) and individual-level (face-to-face coaching, telephone support) elements.
  
  
  METHODS
  Workplace sitting time (minutes/8-hour workday) assessed objectively via activPAL3 devices worn for 7 days at baseline and 3 months (end-of-intervention).
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline, the mean proportion of workplace sitting time was approximately 77% across all groups (multi-component group 366 minutes/8 hours [SD=49]; workstations-only group 373 minutes/8 hours [SD=36], comparison 365 minutes/8 hours [SD=54]). Following intervention and relative to the comparison group, workplace sitting time in the multi-component group was reduced by 89 minutes/8-hour workday (95% CI=-130, -47 minutes; p<0.001) and 33 minutes in the workstations-only group (95% CI=-74, 7 minutes, p=0.285).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A multi-component intervention was successful in reducing workplace sitting. These findings may have important practical and financial implications for workplaces targeting sitting time reductions.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 00363297.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland. Electronic address: m.neuhaus@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Maike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neuhaus
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria.
authors.forename: Genevieve N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Healy
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria; Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Melbourne, Victoria; School of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Dunstan
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria; Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria; School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria.
authors.forename: Neville
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland; Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria.
authors.forename: Elizabeth G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Eakin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006804:Ergonomics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D017132:Workplace