Feasibility And Effectiveness Of A 3-month Sedentary Behaviour Reduction Intervention In Sedentary Adults

Adults engage in excessive amounts of sedentary time (ST; sitting/lying/reclining while awake), which increases their risk for poor health outcomes. International guidelines recommend spending <8 hours/day sedentary and to frequently break-up prolonged sitting periods. However, it is unknown if sedentary behaviour reduction interventions are effective at decreasing ST. PURPOSE: Test the hypothesis that a 3-month intervention would reduce daily ST in already sedentary adults (i.e., accumulated >8-hours ST per day). METHODS: 19 sedentary adults were randomly allocated to a Control (n = 10; 8♀; 21-89 years; 5 older adults) or Intervention (n = 9; 6♀; 20-93 years; 4 older adults) group. The Intervention group watched an educational video that highlighted the negative health consequences of excessive ST and received ~2 messages/week via text or email prompting them to decrease their ST. At baseline and 3-month follow-up, a thigh-worn activPAL inclinometer recorded habitual physical and sedentary activities for 7-days. RESULTS: ST increased in the Intervention group (10.0 ± 1.2 to 11.0 ± 1.5 hours/day, p = 0.034), whereby 7/9 Intervention participants increased their ST. However, there was no difference between time points in daily sedentary breaks (3.0 ± 1.0 to 2.7 ± 0.6 breaks/waking hour), light- (1.2 ± 0.6 to 1.2 ± 0.4 hours/day) or moderate-vigorous-intensity physical activity (0.4 ± 0.4 to 0.3 ± 0.3 hours/day), standing time (5.0 ± 1.7 to 5.1 ± 1.3 mins/day) or sleep time (8.3 ± 1.6 to 7.8 ± 1.1 hours/day). There were no differences in ST, sedentary breaks, physical activity, standing time, or sleep for the Control group between time points (all, p > 0.45) or compared to the Intervention group (all, p > 0.37). Based on follow-up phone calls with Intervention group participants, there were several life factors that may have contributed to increases in habitual behaviour including mental health, work/school schedule, and/or willingness to change. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a small sample size, the results of this feasibility study demonstrate that a single educational video and accompanying prompts were not effective at decreasing ST in adults. Future intervention may need to include a more intensive (e.g., more frequent prompt/phone calls, longer intervention duration) and individualized approach to reducing ST in adults.

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