Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effects of an intervention on the reduction of time spent sitting in a professional context. Method: The intervention consisted of a group presentation on sedentary lifestyle and active breaks at work, followed by an individual planning phase. Participants were then asked to use alert software for four weeks. The operation lasted six weeks; 38 people aged 29 to 59 participated (80% women). Before and after the intervention, behaviours (sedentary lifestyle and physical activity) were assessed with accelerometers, and the degree of automaticity towards sitting and active breaks was measured by questionnaire. Results: Following the intervention, the time spent sitting during a workday decreased significantly. Read more specifically, sitting time decreased more among people aged 29 to 43, who had decided to take breaks of at least five minutes each, and who had longer sittings before the procedure.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that combining an informational strategy with alerts generated by computer or mobile phone can reduce sedentary time at work. This intervention is inexpensive for employees and companies. An interesting perspective could be to compare these effects to those of interventions based on a modification of the physical working environment, such as the installation of adjustable desks.