Measuring physical activity and sedentary behaviour at work: a review
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026
Visualization of Intensity Levels to Reduce the Gap Between Self-Reported and Directly Measured Physical Activity
Published on: March 7, 2019
Marcelo Castillo-Retamal1, Erica A Hinckson
1School of Physical Education, Faculty of Education, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile. mcastill@aut.ac.nz
Objective:
To identify methods used to assess physical activity and sedentary behaviour at the workplace and review the validity and reliability of these measures.
Methods:
Databases were searched for relevant published articles including MEDLINE, SPORT Discus, ProQuest and Google Scholar. Keywords used were physical-activity, workplace, sedentary-behaviour, measurement and questionnaire. Studies included were original, written in English, published between 1990 and 2009, and focused on validated physical activity and sedentary behaviour measures at work. Eleven papers were identified in which three used criterion standards, three objective measures, and five subjective measures.
Results:
The most common method of data collection was through self-report, surveys or questionnaires. Physical activity measured with motion sensors, ranged from 4,422 to 10,334 steps/day (pedometers) and sedentary time ranged from 1.8 to 6 hours/day (h/d) (accelerometers). Self-report measures provided information relevant to the perception of physical activity at work (∼ 0.5 h/d), sitting time (> 3 h/d) and calculated energy expenditure (< 800 kcal/d).
Conclusion:
Physical activity levels at work were low while sedentary behaviour was high. This was largely a function of occupation (white-collar vs. blue-collar). None of the studies assessed validity or reliability of measures used however, instruments as assessed by others showed moderate to strong validity and reliability values.
