Mobile Health-Health Action Process Approach Based Intervention on Sedentary Behaviour and Stress in Office Workers

Effects of a Mobile Health-Health Action Process Approach Based Intervention on Sedentary Behaviour and Stress Among Desk-Basked Office Working Adults

This study will explore the effectiveness of a Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) mobile health (mHealth) intervention on reducing sedentary behaviour and perceived stress in desk-based office workers. Half of participants will receive a mHealth HAPA intervention consisting of a theory-driven behavioural counselling session and weekly HAPA based worksheets delivered through a mobile application. The other half of participants will act as a control group and will receive no intervention or information past the letter of information. The study will take place over eight weeks, with the first four weeks acting as the intervention period and a follow-up at the end of week eight.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sedentary Behavior; Perceived Stress; Health Behaviour Change
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: HAPA behavioural counselling + weekly HAPA worksheets

Detailed Description

This two-arm, repeated measure randomized control trial will randomize participants into two groups, an intervention group and a no-contact control group in an attempt to reduce sedentary behaviour in desk-based office workers. The study will last for eight weeks, comprising of a four week intervention period and a follow-up at week eight.

Participants will be full time desk-based office workers primarily recruited from large businesses and corporations. The primary objective of the study is to reduce sedentary behaviour, while the secondary objective is to determine if a theory-based behaviour change intervention tailored to workplace sedentary would affect general stress levels of desk-based office workers over the course of the intervention.

The intervention group will receive an initial theory-based behaviour change counselling session through video chat and then continued through a mobile application where weekly worksheets will be delivered to a participant's mobile phone and encourage the participant to create their own personal and specific action plans and coping strategies. The control group will receive no intervention or further instruction past the letter of information.

Sedentary behaviour will be collected in the form of duration of time spent sitting, frequency of sedentary behaviour breaks, and duration of sedentary behaviour breaks. These variables will be measured through a sedentary behaviour and perceived stress questionnaires that will be delivered through a downloadable mobile phone application.

Outcome measures will be compared within and between groups to detect differences. Participants will be recruited through emails to relevant liaisons and senior executives as well as through emails directly to office working employees in the London area.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 62
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Harry Prapavessis, Ph.D; Phone Number: 80173 5196612111; Email: hparapave@uwo.ca

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • London, Ontario, Canada
      • The University of Western Ontario

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• full-time employee in a desk-based office job (work from home accepted)
• have access to a smartphone with internet connection
• can read and write in English

Exclusion Criteria:

• any medical or physical limitation that would prevent standing, stretching, and/or light physical activity

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group; The control group will receive no intervention or further instruction past the letter of information.
Experimental: mHealth HAPA Intervention Group; This intervention group will receive a single one-on-one behavioural counselling session and weekly action and coping planning worksheets delivered through a downloaded smartphone application with the aim of increasing the breaking of consecutive work related sedentary behaviour. Counselling strategies will be grounded in the HAPA model, specifically focusing on the creation of action plans and the development of coping strategies to increase sedentary behaviour breaks. The weekly HAPA based worksheets will be sent out to participants at the beginning of their work week so that they can formulate their own personal action plans and coping strategies for the week to come. They will be prompted to refer back to the information conveyed in one-on-one counselling session where they should try to create action plans that are specific and meaningful to them. The intervention will last for a total of four weeks with the outcomes being measured through questionnaires.	Behavioral: HAPA behavioural counselling + weekly HAPA worksheets; Behavioural counselling grounded in the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA; ie., action planning and coping planning) paired with weekly HAPA based worksheets delivered through a mobile application, SEMA3, to reduce consecutive workplace sedentary behaviour.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Time Spent Sitting at Work	modified Occupational Physical Activity Questionnaire (Reis et al., 2005; Chau et al., 2012); 5-items	Baseline, Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
Changes in Time Spent Standing at Work	modified Occupational Physical Activity Questionnaire (Reis et al., 2005; Chau et al., 2012); 5-items	Baseline, Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
Changes in Time Spent Engaged in Light-Intensity Physical Activity at Work	modified Occupational Physical Activity Questionnaire (Reis et al., 2005; Chau et al., 2012); 5-items	Baseline, Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
Changes in Frequency of Breaks from Sitting at Work	Modified version of the Last 7-day Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire (SIT-Q 7d) (Wijndaele et al., 2014; Sui & Prapavessis, 2016); 1-item; 12-point scale (Less than every 30 min, Every 30-45 min, Every 45 min-1 hour, Every 1-1.5 hours, Every 1.5-2 hours, Every 2-3 hours, Every 3-4 hours, Every 4-5 hours, Over every 5 hours, No interruption); Lower values represent a better outcome	Baseline, Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
Changes in Duration of Breaks from Sitting at Work	Modified version of the Last 7-day Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire (SIT-Q 7d) (Wijndaele et al., 2014; Sui & Prapavessis, 2016); 1-item; 10-point scale (Less than 30 sec, 30 sec-1 min, 1-2 min, 2-3 min, 3-4 min, 4-5 min, 5-10 min, 10-15 min, 15-30 min, Over 30 min); Higher values represent a better outcome	Baseline, Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 8

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Perceived Stress	Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983); 10-item; 5-point scale (Never, Almost NEver, Sometimes, Fairly Often, Very Often); Lower values represent a better outcome	Baseline, Week 4

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Age	Assessed with a single item question: "What is your age?"	Baseline
Sex	Assessed with a single item question: "What is your sex?"	Baseline
Gender	Assessed with a single item question: "What gender do you most identify with?"	Baseline
Ethnicity	Assessed with a single item question: "What ethnicity do you most identify with?"	Baseline
Work Environment	Assessed with a three item question: "What is your current work environment?"; in office, at home, hybrid	Baseline
Type of Occupation	Assessed with a four item question: "What general sector does your occupation fall under?"; private, public, charity, other	Baseline
Hours of Work per Week	Assessed with a single item question: "What are your typical hours of work on an average week?"	Baseline
Education Level	Assessed with a single item question: "What is your current formal education level?"	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Western University, Canada
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Harry Prapavessis, Ph.D, Western University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 8, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): July 31, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 17, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 17, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): January 31, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 1, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 29, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mobile Health; mHealth; Perceived Stress; Sedentary Behaviour; Health Behaviour Change; Health Action Process Approach; Office Workers
• Other Study ID Numbers: 120488

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No