The Health Action Process Approach and Movement Patterns in Adult Office Workers
Condition: Sedentary Lifestyle
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Societal changes have resulted in reduced demands to be active and increased daily time spent
      sitting. Excessive sitting has been shown to be a health hazard. The purpose of this study is
      to examine whether sedentary behaviour and diabetes information grounded in the Health Action
      Process Approach is a meaningful source of motivation to reduce daily sitting time among
      adult office workers. The intervention will target risk perceptions related to sitting by
      presenting research on prolonged sitting and diabetes risk, the effectiveness of breaking up
      prolonged sitting, and provide strategies to break up sitting. It is expected that
      participants who receive this information will report greater motivation and intentions to
      reduce both work and leisure sitting time.
    

Detailed description: 
      Using a Health Action Process Approach framework, the purpose of this study is to examine
      whether sedentary behaviour and diabetes information is a meaningful source of motivation to
      reduce daily sitting time among preintending adult office workers. Specifically, to examine
      the effectiveness of an intervention guided by HAPA to influence participants'
      pre-intentional motivational constructs (i.e., sedentary-derived risk perceptions [RP],
      outcome expectancies [OE], self-efficacy [SE]) and intentions (GI) for reducing both
      occupational and leisure-time sedentary behaviour.

      Sedentary office-workers who had given little thought to how much they sit were targeted to
      discriminate preintenders from intenders. Research has demonstrated the benefits of matching
      self-help manuals and other motivational materials to a person's stage of readiness or change
      (e.g., Graham, Prapavessis, & Cameron, 2006; Pope, Pelletier, & Guertin, 2017)

      This is a pilot randomized controlled trial with outcome variables being assessed immediately
      post-intervention. If successful, participants in the Experimental Group (sedentary
      intervention group) will report higher outcome expectancies (OE) regarding reducing sitting
      time, higher risk perceptions (RP) regarding SB and diabetes risk, higher self-efficacy (SE)
      to reduce both occupational and leisure-time SB, and greater intentions (GI) to reduce both
      occupational and leisure-time SB at post-intervention, compared to participants in either the
      Attention-control Group or Control Group. In addition, it is hypothesized that participants
      in the Attention-control Group, those who received information about the benefits of physical
      activity, will also show slightly greater scores on pre-intentional motivational factors
      (i.e., OE, RP, and SE) and behavioural intentions (GI) those those in the Control Group based
      on the reminder that moderate-vigorous physical activity is important (which implies that
      sitting should be minimized). Participants in the Control Group are not expected to report
      any changes in sitting-related motivational factors post-intervention.

      This is a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) with outcome variables being assessed
      immediately post-intervention. Participants will be full-time adult, office workers primarily
      recruited from large businesses and office spaces. Potential participants (estimated
      enrollment: 252) will be recruited by Andrew Rollo, Co-Investigator, and Harry Prapavessis,
      Principal Investigator, for this study. Relevant contacts (i.e., Head of Human Resources,
      President, Chief Executive Officer, Office Manager) at potential businesses of interest will
      be contacted via email. The email will include the letter of information (LOI) and
      recruitment poster. If the individual accepts the invitation to participate and informs the
      researchers that he/she is willing to facilitate and aid with the recruitment process, a
      face-to-face meeting will be arranged. During this meeting, full and complete study details
      (i.e., purpose, design, methods and procedure) will be made clear to the ONE individual
      (i.e., Head of Human Resources, President, CEO, Office Manager). The individual will then be
      asked to email all full-time employees in the respective office/business and offer them the
      opportunity to participate. In this recruitment email, brief study details, a recruitment
      poster and a link to an online survey (i.e., including the Letter of Information, Informed
      Consent, and online questionnaire) using the SurveyMonkey website will be provided to all
      employees. Adult office-workers who choose to take part in this study will be asked to
      complete an online questionnaire using SurveyMonkey. Participants will be assured that
      participation in this study is voluntary, that they are free to discontinue and withdraw from
      the study at any time, and that they may choose to skip any questions that they do not wish
      to answer without any effect on their employment status/work conditions. In other words,
      refusing to participate, refusing to answer any questions or withdrawing from the study will
      not impact their employment beyond potentially not receiving benefits associated with study
      participation. After viewing the Letter of Information and indicating that they consent to
      participate in the study (by clicking "I agree" on the survey), participants will be asked to
      complete a brief demographics questionnaire. All participants will then be randomized to one
      of three groups: Control (outcome questionnaire without any slides), Attention-Control (same
      outcome questionnaire but with slides focusing on benefits of moderate-vigorous physical
      activity), or Experimental (same outcome questionnaire but with slides focusing on sedentary
      behaviour and diabetes risk). Depending on group assignment, participation should take
      between 30 minutes and 45 minutes total. In the attention-control and experimental condition,
      participants will receive information in the form of a slide show that will be viewed online.
      The intervention aims to address all components of the Health Action Process Approach. For
      the experimental group, the intervention material will target risk perceptions (RP) related
      to sitting by presenting evidence supported by research on sedentary behaviour and diabetes
      risk; outcome expectancies (OE) by presenting research on the effectiveness of breaking up
      sedentary time for improving blood sugar and insulin levels; and self-efficacy (SE) by
      providing strategies on how to reduce and break up sitting time. The attention-control slide
      show will take the same approach but the slides will be geared towards meeting
      moderate-vigorous physical activity guidelines. Participants randomly assigned to the control
      group will receive no information or intervention of any kind and will only be asked to
      complete the outcome questionnaire. Regardless of group assignment, all participants will
      complete the same measures post-intervention (i.e., questionnaire measuring sedentary-related
      pre-intentional motivational constructs [RP, OE, SE] and intentions [GI]). However,
      participants in the attention-control and experimental group will FIRST receive information
      in the form of a slide show that will be delivered online. The first question assesses
      outcome expectancies (OE) with respect to reducing daily sitting time; the second question
      assesses risk perceptions (RP) related to sitting time and diabetes risk; questions 3-12
      assess self-efficacy (SE) related to reducing sedentary behaviour; and questions 13-22 assess
      intentions (GI) related to reducing sedentary behaviour. The post-intervention outcome
      questionnaire will be administered online via SurveyMonkey immediately following intervention
      delivery (with the exception of control group who will solely complete the questionnaire).
      All responses are completely confidential.

      Only participants who responded 'somewhat' or below in response to the baseline screening
      question, which asked whether they had given any thought to how much time they spent sitting,
      were used in the main analyses (n = 96) to test the major hypotheses generated for the
      present study.
    

Intervention name(s): HAPA SB Intervention Slideshow; HAPA MVPA Attention-Control Slideshow
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): In the experimental condition, participants will receive sedentary behaviour and diabetes information in the form of a slide show that will be viewed online. The intervention aims to address all components of the Health Action Process Approach. For the experimental group, the intervention material will target risk perceptions (RP) related to sitting by presenting evidence supported by research on sedentary behaviour and diabetes risk; outcome expectancies (OE) by presenting research on the effectiveness of breaking up sedentary time for improving blood sugar and insulin levels; and self-efficacy (SE) by providing strategies on how to reduce and break up sitting time.; In the attention-control, participants will receive information in the form of a slide show that will be viewed online. The intervention aims to address all components of the Health Action Process Approach. The attention-control slide show will take the same approach as the Experimental group slideshow but the slides will be geared towards meeting moderate-vigorous physical activity guidelines.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Sedentary Behaviour; Health Behaviour Change; Health Action Process Approach; Intervention; Prolonged Sitting; Light Intensity Physical Activity; Motivational Factors; Intentions; Diabetes; Self-Efficacy; Risk Perception; Outcome Expectancies