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Published on: March 7, 2019
Objectively measured sedentary behavior and physical activity in office employees: relationships with presenteeism
Helen Elizabeth Brown1, Gemma C Ryde, Nicholas D Gilson
1School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. heb56@medschl.cam.ac.uk
Objective:
Employee presenteeism is the extent to which health conditions adversely affect at-work productivity. Given the links between health and activity, this study examined associations between objectively measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, and presenteeism.
Methods:
Participants were 108 office employees (70% women, mean age 40.7 ± 11.2 years). Activity was measured using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers to determine sedentary (≤150 counts) and light (151 to 1689 counts) activity; presenteeism with the Work Limitations Questionnaire.
Results:
Fifty-seven percent of time was spent in sedentary behavior and 38% in light activity. The median Work Limitations Questionnaire Index was 4.38; 6% of participants reported at least moderate impairment. Significant associations were reported for time spent in sedentary behavior before/after work (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58; 95% CI: 1.08 to 6.20) and in light activity, overall (OR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.97) and during workday lunch hours (OR = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.77), and presenteeism.
Conclusions:
Future studies should seek greater variation in employee levels of activity and presenteeism to confirm these relationships.
