UCLMuevete: Increasing the amount of physical activity, work-ability, and cardiorespiratory fitness capacity in university workers through active breaks

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Active break programs at the workplace are a promising initiative for increasing workers' physical activity (PA) levels, health, work-ability (WA), and social relationship. OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of an Active Breaks workplace program based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) aligned with Behavior Change Techniques (BCT) on PA levels, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), WA, and social relationships among university workers. METHODS: #UCLMuévete is a quasi-experimental, 12-week intervention designed according to the TREND and TIDieR-PHP checklists. Sixty-nine university workers were recruited and placed into 17 teams of 3 to 5 people. Participants were instructed to take a 20-min active break every working day (walking, cycling, and functional training). The following variables were measured before and after the 12-week intervention: (1) Amount of PA with accelerometers, (2) CRF through the 6 Min-Walking Test (m), (3) Body composition (fat mass (gr), muscle mass (gr), and bone mineral content (g/cm3) through densitometry), (4) Stress with the BodyGuard2 device, (5) WA through Work Ability Index (WAI), and (6) Social relationships through an ad-hoc questionnaire. Part-time workers, pregnant women, and workers with physical disability were excluded. RESULTS: Significant improvements were observed in the amount of daily moderate-to-vigorous PA (Difference (Dif)., women +8.05 and men +12.31 minutes; p < 0.05; ES = 0.224; 0.379), CRF (Dif., women +52.98 and men +25.53 meters; p < 0.05; ES = 0.578; 0.209), and (Dif., women +2.16 and men +2.39; p < 0.05; ES = 0.150; 0.177). No significant changes were observed in body composition and stress. CONCLUSION: 20 min/day of aerobic and strength active breaks, based on SCT aligned to BCTs, improves university workers’ amount of PA, CRF, WAI, and social relationships.