A Blended Intervention to Promote Physical Activity, Health and Work Productivity Among Office Employees

Hong Kong Baptist University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physically Well But Worried

Treatments: Behavioral: web-based intervention; Behavioral: blended intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04391270

12609919

Details and patient eligibility

About

The primary objective of this study is to examine between-group differences in changes of objectively measured MVPA levels (min/week) among a randomly selected sample of office employees who are physically inactive in Hong Kong.

Full description

Regular participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is related to decreased risk of morbidity and mortality. Among working populations, lack of MVPA may also be a risk factor for absenteeism and presenteeism. Both traditional workplace-based and web-based interventions have been suggested as being effective in promoting participation MVPA, health-related outcomes, and work-related productivity. However, several challenges limit their application in real world contexts. A 'blended' intervention approach combining the two intervention strategies is proposed to overcome these limitations. The proposed intervention aims to utilize the blended approach to increase participation in MVPA, health-related outcomes, and work productivity among inactive workers.

Methods: The study will comprise of a three group cluster randomized controlled trial (cluster-RCT), comprising a three-month actual intervention and a nine-month behavioral follow-up period. The three groups will be: a web-based intervention group, a blended intervention group combining the web-based components with face-to-face workshops, and a control group. Physically inactive office employees (N = 141) from will be recruited and randomly assigned to the three groups by cluster randomization. The intervention mapping (IM) framework will be used for selecting and applying effective health behavioural theories and behavioural change techniques (BCTs) to the development, implementation and assessment of the intervention, which will be personally tailored. The primary outcome variable will be objectively measured MVPA using an accelerometer. Secondary outcomes will consist of indices of health including adiposity, blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids, self-reported depression, anxiety, stress, and health-related quality of life, and work-related variables including absenteeism and presenteeism.

Enrollment: 141 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• physically inactive (do NOT meet the WHO's recommended MVPA levels)
• office employees in Hong Kong.

Exclusion criteria

• participants are engaging other ongoing programs involving MVPA promotion
• if they report any conditions preventing them from being active.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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141 participants in 3 patient groups

web-based intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Except "Library", the participants in this group will also have access to the "Intervention" sub-section of the website. It will consist of six sessions delivered every two weeks following the same time schedule as the essay delivery in "Library".

Treatment:

Behavioral: web-based intervention

blended intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Except visiting "Library" and "Intervention" of the website, the participants in this group will also receive three face-to-face workshops (40 min per session) held at their workplaces.

Treatment:

Behavioral: blended intervention

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The participants in the control group will have access to the "Library" sub-section of the website. General information of MVPA, health and work productivity will be provided with 18 short essays, which can be downloaded and printed out. The information will be factual and non-personally tailored.