Analysis of physical activity at work of university employees by accelerometry

Background and purpose

It is commonly accepted that physical activity (PA) improves health and well-being. At work, the PA benefits go not only to the employees but also to the employers (Ecorys, 2017). Although researchers are fond of physical activity data, the literature appears to be relatively poor in terms of PA rates for university staff, even if it is their own professional context. 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 distributed to 47 subjects working at the ULiège selected through a stratified sampling respecting the 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

Subjects walked an average of 8,069 (± 6463) steps/day, with no difference by gender. According the age, a significant difference appeared between <39 and 59> categories. Based on the Tuder-Lock and Basset classification system (2004), only 11 participants can be considered physically active (23%).p <.05). Per week, employees spent 1918 min (±564) in low PA, 223 min (±165) in moderate PA, and 23 min (±56) in vigorous PA. The data confirm the poor PA level identified previously by questionnaires.

Conclusion and implications

Despite a large disparity in the individual results, it would be urgent to implement an institutional policy promoting physical activity at the ULiège. Such project would be an interesting challenge for the PE department. Practical recommendations are proposed.