Interventions integrating physical activity into organizational routine during everyday life have demonstrated modest but consistent benefits , particularly for physical activity , and these are promising avenues of investigation .
The proportionately longer-term outcomes available in these studies compared with individual-level studies suggest that physical activity promotion strategies at the organizational level may be more sustainable
CONTEXT Recommended daily physical activity accumulated in short intervals ( e.g. , < 10 minutes ) may be more feasible and appealing to the relatively sedentary populace than longer bouts .
The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of the evidence for the effectiveness of short activity bouts incorporated into organizational routine as part of the regular " conduct of business . "
Do walking strategies to increase physical activity reduce reported sitting in workplaces: a randomized control trial
Background Interventions design ed to increase workplace physical activity may not automatically reduce high volumes of sitting , a behaviour independently linked to chronic diseases such as obesity and type II diabetes . This study compared the impact two different walking strategies had on step counts and reported sitting times . Methods Participants were white-collar university employees ( n = 179 ; age 41.3 ± 10.1 years ; 141 women ) , who volunteered and undertook a st and ardised ten-week intervention at three sites .  Pre-intervention step counts  ( Yamax SW-200 ) and  self-reported sitting times  were measured over five consecutive workdays . Using pre-intervention step counts , employees at each site were r and omly allocated to a control group ( n = 60 ; maintain normal behaviour ) , a route-based walking group ( n = 60 ; at least 10 minutes sustained walking each workday ) or an incidental walking group ( n = 59 ; walking in workday tasks ) . Workday step counts and reported sitting times were re-assessed at the beginning , mid- and endpoint of intervention and group mean± SD steps/day and reported sitting times for pre-intervention and intervention measurement points compared using a mixed factorial ANOVA ; paired sample -t-tests were used for follow-up , simple effect analyses . Results A significant interactive effect ( F = 3.5 ; p < 0.003 ) was found between group and step counts . Daily steps for controls decreased over the intervention period ( -391 steps/day ) and increased for route ( 968 steps/day ; t = 3.9 , p < 0.000 ) and incidental ( 699 steps/day ; t = 2.5 , p < 0.014 ) groups . There were no significant changes for reported sitting times , but average values did decrease relative to the control ( routes group = 7 minutes/day ; incidental group = 15 minutes/day ) . Reductions were most evident for the incidental group in the first week of intervention , where reported sitting decreased by an average of 21 minutes/day ( t = 1.9 ; p < 0.057 ) . Conclusion Compared to controls , both route and incidental walking increased physical activity  in white-collar employees . Our data suggests that workplace walking , particularly through incidental movement , also has the potential to decrease employee sitting times , but there is a need for on-going research using concurrent and objective measures of sitting , st and ing and walking
Interventions integrating physical activity into organizational routine during everyday life have demonstrated modest but consistent benefits , particularly for physical activity , and these are promising avenues of investigation .
The proportionately longer-term outcomes available in these studies compared with individual-level studies suggest that physical activity promotion strategies at the organizational level may be more sustainable
CONTEXT Recommended daily physical activity accumulated in short intervals ( e.g. , < 10 minutes ) may be more feasible and appealing to the relatively sedentary populace than longer bouts .
The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of the evidence for the effectiveness of short activity bouts incorporated into organizational routine as part of the regular " conduct of business . "