Sedentarity at work in university employees: An analysis by accelerometry

Background and purpose

Sedentarity lifestyle is a global public health problem. According to WHO (2008), it affects 31% of adults (28% men and 34% women) and is considered the 4th risk factor of death. It increases the risks of cancer, diabetes, heart disease ... The recommendations are currently not very clear except to minimize the time spend sitting or lying and to interrupt these periods every 90 to 120 minutes by joint mobilization. In the perspective of changing the habits of the employees of the University of Liège (ULiège), we analyzed the profile of their activity/physical inactivity by means of a questionnaire (Dubru et al., 2018). The purposes of the present study consisted to supplement the previous data using accelerometry and to prepare recommendations for the authorities of the institution.

Methods

Accelerometers Actigraph GT3X+ were provided to 47 subjects working at the ULiège, selected through a stratified sampling respecting gender, age, and location of the workplace. Accelerometers were worn on the right hip for 7 days, day and night, as recommended by the literature (Migueles et al., 2017). Troiano et al. (2007)’s epochs and cut-points were chosen.

Results

The subjects remained sitting or lying on average 7911 minutes (± 558) per day. There are no significant differences by gender, age or location. The least sedentary days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday (day off). The most sedentary days are Mondays, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. At work, the least active hours are around 10am and 2pm. The data confirm the high sedentary rate previously identified by the questionnaires.

Conclusion and implications

Sedentarity and physical activity are two distinct concepts. It is important to set up projects to increase physical activity but especially to reduce the sedentary situations of the employees of ULiège. Based on the findings, practical recommendations are proposed.