Internal but Not External Building Design Associated With More Occupational Physical Activity

Few studies have explored the impact of internal building design features on physical activity. The purpose of this study is to determine building design features associate with physical activity and sedentary behaviors.

Full-time workers (n = 114) wore an ActivPal monitor for 4 work days to measure physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Participants completed a 25-item survey about the presence of external, internal, and staircase design features at their worksite. Participants also reported their desk type. General linear models were used to examine relations between the number of features present for each category and physical activity (steps per hour) and sedentary behavior (sitting time per hour).

Internal design scores were positively associated with occupational physical activity. Each single item increase in facilitating internal design features was associated with +64.5 steps/hr (p = .045) at work. Workers who reported having a desk job walked 538 fewer steps/hr (p < .01) and sat 17 min more/hr at work than workers who reported not having a desk.

These results suggest that internal design features can promote more movement and less sitting at work. Future studies that examine the longitudinal effect of changing internal design features on occupational physical activity and sedentary behaviors are warranted.