Physical activity patterns and aerobic fitness of academic staff at a University of Technology in South Africa
Authors:   , Roelofse Valeska 
Published: March 2022

Physical activity (PA) has a significant effect on well-being and should be an essential component of healthy living. An active lifestyle has been found to aid weight management and provide protection against chronic lifestyle diseases. Physical inactivity of white-collar office workers has been shown to decrease work productivity and increase work absenteeism. Consequently, academic staff may experience these effects due to physical inactivity. Despite the many international studies performed on the PA of white-collar office and administration workers, few studies have focussed on office workers in a South African setting. Moreover, studies investigating PA of academic staff in a South African setting are limited. This study therefore aimed to determine the PA patterns and aerobic fitness of academic staff at a university in South Africa (SA). Objectives: The objectives of this study were: to determine self-reported PA levels of academic staff using the IPAQ; to objectively measure PA patterns of academic staff using pedometers; to compare pedometer-measured data with self-reported data; to establish aerobic fitness through an aerobic fitness assessment; and to determine the association, if any, between the pedometer-measured steps and aerobic fitness. Method: A cross sectional study in a quantitative paradigm consisted of a descriptive component involving the completion of the IPAQ and 7-day pedometer wear. An experimental component in the form of an aerobic fitness assessment (Harvard Step Test) was performed and measurements including Physical Efficiency Index (PEI) percentage body fat (PBF), Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio were taken. This was administered to 61 full-time, non-contract academic staff members at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). IBM SPSS version 25.0 was used to analyse the data. Continuous data was described using median and inter-quartile ranges overall and per group as the variables were not normally distributed. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare medians across physical activity groups at a 0.05 level of significance. Where an overall significant result was obtained, Bonferroni-adjusted multiple comparison tests were Background: Physical activity (PA) has a significant effect on well-being and should be an essential component of healthy living. An active lifestyle has been found to aid weight management and provide protection against chronic lifestyle diseases. Physical inactivity of white-collar office workers has been shown to decrease work productivity and increase work absenteeism. Consequently, academic staff may experience these effects due to physical inactivity. Despite the many international studies performed on the PA of white-collar office and administration workers, few studies have focussed on office workers in a South African setting. Moreover, studies investigating PA of academic staff in a South African setting are limited. This study therefore aimed to determine the PA patterns and aerobic fitness of academic staff at a university in South Africa (SA). Objectives: The objectives of this study were: to determine self-reported PA levels of academic staff using the IPAQ; to objectively measure PA patterns of academic staff using pedometers; to compare pedometer-measured data with self-reported data; to establish aerobic fitness through an aerobic fitness assessment; and to determine the association, if any, between the pedometer-measured steps and aerobic fitness. Method: A cross sectional study in a quantitative paradigm consisted of a descriptive component involving the completion of the IPAQ and 7-day pedometer wear. An experimental component in the form of an aerobic fitness assessment (Harvard Step Test) was performed and measurements including Physical Efficiency Index (PEI) percentage body fat (PBF), Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio were taken. This was administered to 61 full-time, non-contract academic staff members at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). IBM SPSS version 25.0 was used to analyse the data. Continuous data was described using median and inter-quartile ranges overall and per group as the variables were not normally distributed. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare medians across physical activity groups at a 0.05 level of significance. Where an overall significant result was obtained, Bonferroni-adjusted multiple comparison tests were iv performed to identify the groups which differed. Relationships between continuous variables were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results: Key findings: 49.1% of participants were classified as being moderately active, 31.9% were classified as highly active and 19.0% were classified as low or physically inactive according to the IPAQ. Participants mostly engaged in moderate intensity physical activity (MPA) during the week (1800 MET minutes/week). The largest volume of PA was spent performing domestic and gardening/yard activities (1120 MET-minutes/week). A significant difference in self-reported fitness level was found across the PA classifications (p = 0.003), with the most significant differences observed between the high and low groups (p = 0.01) and moderate and high groups (p = 0.04). A trend was found which indicated that as PA measured with the IPAQ increased, so did all the median values of the pedometer measure data. An overall significant difference between the PA groups (highly active, moderately active and low activity groups) in terms of average aerobic steps (p = 0.028) and average aerobic walking time (p = 0.033) was present. The majority of participants (62.3%) were classified as having a poor Physical Efficiency Index (PEI), followed by 31.1% of participants having a low-average PEI and only 6.6% were found to have a high-average PEI. Strong negative correlations were found between PEI and Percentage body fat (PBF) (r = -0.369, p = 0.003). Another negative correlation was present between PEI and Body Mass Index (BMI) (r = -0.308, p = 0.016). A strong positive correlation was found between BMI and PBF (r = 0.789, p = < 0.001). BMI was negatively correlated with average daily steps (r = -0.296, p = 0.020), average daily aerobic steps (r = -0.244, p = 0.059) and average distance covered (r = -0.236, p = 0.067). Significant relationships were found between PEI and average kilocalories (r = 0.295, p = 0.021) as well as with average distance (r = 0.293, p = 0.022). PBF was negatively correlated with average aerobic steps (r = -0.416, p = 0.001), average aerobic walking time (r = -0.409, p = 0.001) and average daily steps (r = -0.380, p = 0.003). A trend was found where total PA MET-minutes/week increased from Groups A to B to C. There was a significant difference (p < 0.001) across the three participation groups regarding PA level where high activity was more likely to be present in Group C and low activity more likely to be present in Group A. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that almost half of the participants were at least moderately active according to self-reported data. This is higher than previous studies performed nationally and globally on office workers and healthcare workers. Despite this, most participants exhibited poor aerobic fitness when performing the aerobic fitness assessment and the pedometer data measurements were lower than previous studies conducted. The study therefore illustrates the need for academic staff members to improve their aerobic fitness as well as to improve their step count and aerobic walking time on a daily basis. Additionally, increasing daily step count and aerobic walking time will benefit the health of academic staff. This was seen with the strong negative correlations found between step counts and aerobic walking time with BMI and PBF as well as between PEI and PBF. By increasing step count and aerobic walking time, staff could potentially maintain a healthy BMI and PBF which could reduce risk of co-morbid pathologies. This would contribute to a healthy lifestyle which should be encouraged. Therefore, it is recommended that employers and management of tertiary institutions consider these findings and use them to implement worksite PA programmes in order to improve PA of workers and academic staff which could ultimately positively impact well-being and consequent work performance.