Effects of an Intervention to Reduce Sitting at Work on Arousal, Fatigue, and Mood Among Sedentary Female Employees: A Parallel-Group Randomized Trial.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether individuals who participated in an intervention to reduce sitting at work would report changes in arousal, fatigue, and mood. Inactive females with full-time sedentary occupations (N = 49) were randomly assigned to take short, frequent breaks (SBs) or longer, planned breaks (LBs) from sitting each workday for 8 weeks. At baseline and postintervention, participants completed measures of arousal, fatigue, and mood. Within- and between-group changes were examined. SB participants reduced sitting and reported moderate to large improvements in all affective outcomes except calmness (d = -0.44 to -0.82), whereas effect sizes were small for the LB group (d = 0.01 to -0.28). Only changes in negative affect differed between groups (P = 0.045). This study suggests that taking short, frequent breaks from sitting may be an effective strategy for improving affective outcomes among sedentary female employees.