The Physical Activity at Work (PAW) Program in Thai Office Workers: Mixed Methods Process Evaluation Study

An increasing number of multicomponent workplace interventions are being developed to reduce sedentary time and promote physical activity among office workers. The Physical Activity at Work (PAW) trial was one of these interventions, but it yielded an inconclusive effect on sedentary time after 6 months, with a low uptake of movement breaks, the main intervention component.

This study investigates the factors contributing to the outcomes of the PAW cluster randomized trial.

Following the Medical Research Council's guidance for process evaluation of complex interventions, we used a mixed methods study design to evaluate the PAW study's recruitment and context (how job nature and cluster recruitment affected movement break participation), implementation (dose and fidelity), and mechanisms of impact (assessing how intervention components affected movement break participation and identifying the facilitators and barriers to participation in the movement breaks). Data from accelerometers, pedometers, questionnaires, on-site monitoring, and focus group discussions were used for the evaluation. Linear mixed effects models were used to analyze the effects of different intervention components on the movement breaks. Subsequently, qualitative analysis of the focus group discussions provided additional insights into the relationship between the intervention components.

The participation in movement breaks declined after the third week, averaging 12.7 sessions (SD 4.94) per participant per week for the first 3 weeks, and continuing to decrease throughout the intervention. On-site monitoring confirmed high implementation fidelity. Analysis of Fitbit data revealed that each additional movement break was associated with a reduction of 6.20 (95% CI 6.99-5.41) minutes in sedentary time and an increase of 245 (95% CI 222-267) steps. Regarding the mechanisms of impact, clusters with higher baseline sedentary time demonstrated greater participation in movement breaks, while those with frequent out-of-office duties showed minimal engagement. Moreover, clusters with enthusiastic and encouraging movement break leaders were associated with a 24.1% (95% CI 8.88%-39.4%) increase in participation. Environmental and organizational support components using posters and leaders' messages were ineffective, showing no significant change in percentage participation in movement breaks (4.49%, 95% CI -0.49% to 9.47% and 1.82%, 95% CI -2.25% to 5.9%, respectively). Barriers such as high workloads and meetings further hindered participation, while the facilitators included participants' motivation to feel active and the perceived health benefits from movement breaks.

Despite high fidelity, the PAW trial did not significantly reduce sedentary time, with limited uptake of movement breaks due to context-related challenges, ineffective environmental support, and high workloads during the COVID-19 pandemic.