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A cluster randomized controlled trial to reduce office workers' sitting time: effect on productivity outcomes
Stand Up Victoria, a multicomponent workplace sitting-reduction intervention cluster-randomised across 14 office worksites, showed small significant improvements in several Work Limitations Questionnaire productivity subscales at 12 months versus control, with a small significant worsening on physical demands.
Design
- Cluster RCT by office worksite (7 vs 7 sites); intervention n = 136 workers vs control n = 95
- Population: desk-based workers (mean age ~45.6 y; ~68% women)
- Intervention: organisational + environmental + individual components targeting workplace sitting
- Outcomes: Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HWQ) + Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ) at 0, 3, 12 months
Principal reported results (12 months; abstract summary)
- WLQ: significant (P < 0.05) small-to-moderate improvements in weighted total score and time, mental, and output demands subdomains; physical demands showed a small significant worsening
- HWQ: mostly non-significant changes except trends for non-work satisfaction (P = 0.053) and stress item (P = 0.086) at 12 months
- Authors frame results as supporting a business case for sitting-reduction programmes alongside prior sitting-time efficacy papers from the same programme.
Evidence hygiene
- Productivity questionnaires are not objective revenue metrics—read item-level tables and imputation sensitivity analyses in the full text.
- This is not a postprandial glucose trial; it belongs adjacent to NEAT / sitting evidence streams.
Publication
Peterman JE, Healy GN, Winkler EAH, et al. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2019 Sep 1;45(5):483–492. PMID 31165898.
Outcomes
- At 12 months, WLQ weighted total score and time, mental, and output demands subscales improved significantly (P<0.05) with the multicomponent sitting-reduction intervention versus control; physical demands subscale worsened slightly but significantly.
- HWQ outcomes were largely non-significant at 12 months except trend-level signals for non-work satisfaction (P=0.053) and a stress item (P=0.086) per abstract.