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Published on: March 7, 2019
Social support for physical activity: Comparison of family, friends, and coworkers
Sonali Sarkar1, Wendell C Taylor2, Dejian Lai1
1School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Background:
Few studies have examined the associations among family, friend, and coworker social support for physical activity. It is important to know the sources of social support that facilitate and promote physical activity among fulltime working adults.
Objective:
We analyzed the associations among family, friend, and coworker social support for physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among participants in a worksite study.
Methods:
This study was a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 144 participants from four worksites in a large, southwestern city in the United States. The intervention for the worksite study was Booster Breaks (a physical activity routine of 15 minutes) practiced daily to break-up prolonged sitting time. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions were conducted using SPSS version 20.
Results:
Age was inversely associated (p = 0.001), and social support from friends (p = 0.04) and coworkers (p = 0.003) were positively associated with physical activity in the unadjusted model. After controlling for all the covariates (age, sex, marital status, BMI, education, and income) in the model, only coworker social support was positively (p = 0.027) associated with physical activity among participants in the workplace study.
Conclusions:
Coworker social support is an important correlate of physical activity and should be incorporated in workplace health promotion programs.
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