High prevalence of sedentary risk factors amongst university employees and potential health benefits of campus workplace exercise intervention

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Sedentariness and physical inactivity are often reported within white-collar workers, including university campus employees. However, the prevalence of the associated sedentary risk factors and risk reduction intervention strategies within a university campus workplace are less known.

OBJECTIVE:

This study investigates whether the prevalence of sedentary risk factors within university campus employees could be reduced with a campus based exercise intervention.

METHODS:

56 UK university employees (age = 50.7 ± 10.2, stature = 1.68.8 ± 8.6, body mass = 73.9 ± 15.1) were tested for body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and maximal cardiorespiratory capacity ( $\dot{\mathrm{V}}{\mathrm{O}}_{2max}$ ). The prevalence was analyzed across genders and job roles. An exercise intervention followed for the sedentary employees involving walking and running for 25 min twice/week for 10 weeks at an intensity corresponding to individual’s ventilatory threshold (VT).

RESULTS:

The university workplace demonstrated a prevalence of higher BMI, SBP and DBP than the recommended healthy thresholds, with gender having a significant effect. Males’ BMI, SBP and DBP were higher than in females (p <  0.05) and males’ $\dot{\mathrm{V}}{\mathrm{O}}_{2max}$ was lower than the recommended healthy thresholds. The exercise training intervention significantly improved $\dot{\mathrm{V}}{\mathrm{O}}_{2max}$ , VT and VT velocity in both genders (all p <  0.05) with both groups meeting the recommended thresholds following the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS:

University campus employees have a high prevalence of sedentary risk factors across different genders and job roles. These risks can be reduced by an exercise-based intervention administered within the campus workplace, which should be considered in university workplace policies.