Physical activity at work contributes little to patient care workers' weekly totals.

Abstract

To determine the number of minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity at work in comparison to weekly total minutes in a pilot study of 50 hospital patient care workers. Workers wore accelerometers during work and nonwork hours for 7 days, and completed surveys at the end of the seventh day. Although the participants reported on average 206 minutes of moderate activity at work, the accelerometers recorded on average 30 minutes of moderate activity at work. For the 7 days the accelerometers measured a total of 165 minutes of moderate activity. Self-reported fatigue and functional limitations were negatively correlated albeit weakly with measured minutes of vigorous activity outside of work. Physical activity at work on patient care units contributes a small fraction to these workers' weekly totals, and in turn meeting guidelines.