Interventions to Increase Physical Activity in Middle-Age Women at the Workplace: A Randomized Controlled Trial

 

Abstract:  

RIBEIRO, M. A., M. A. MARTINS, and C. R. F. CARVALHO. Interventions to Increase Physical Activity in Middle-Age Women at the Workplace: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 00–00, 2014. Purpose: A four-group randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of distinct workplace interventions to increase the physical activity (PA) and to reduce anthropometric parameters in middle-age women. Methods: One-hundred and ninety-five women age 40–50 yr who were employees from a university hospital and physically inactive at their leisure time were randomly assigned to one of four groups: minimal treatment comparator (MTC; n = 47), pedometer-based individual counseling (PedIC; n = 53), pedometer-based group counseling (PedGC; n = 48), and aerobic training (AT; n = 47). The outcomes were total number of steps (primary outcome), those performed at moderate intensity (Q110 steps per minute), and weight and waist circumference (secondary outcomes). Evaluations were performed at baseline, at the end of a 3-month intervention, and 3 months after that. Data were presented as delta [(after 3 months–baseline) or (after 6 months–baseline)] and 95% confidence interval. To detect the differences among the groups, a one-way ANOVA and a Holm–Sidak post hoc test was used (P G 0.05). The Cohen effect size was calculated, and an intention-to-treat approach was performed. Results: Only groups using pedometers (PedIC and PedGC) increased the total number of steps after 3 months (P G 0.05); however, the increase observed in PedGC group (1475 steps per day) was even higher than that in PedIC (512 steps per day, P G 0.05) with larger effect size (1.4). The number of steps performed at moderate intensity also increased only in the PedGC group (845 steps per day, P G 0.05). No PA benefit was observed at 6 months. Women submitted to AT did not modify PA daily life activity but reduced anthropometric parameters after 3 and 6 months (P G 0.05). Conclusions: Our results show that in the workplace setting, pedometer-based PA intervention with counseling is effective increasing daily life number of steps, whereas AT is effective for weight loss.
 

My Opinion:

This study compares between two interventions to increase the physical activity (PA) and to reduce anthropometric parameters in middle-age women which are pedometer-based individual and group counseling and aerobic training. The results showed that the pedometer-based intervention delivered with group counseling had the greatest impact on increasing the number of steps in middle-age women,whereas the Aerobic Training program had a greater impact to reduce weight and waist circumference without affecting the number of steps in daily life.

From this study,I can concluded that pedometer-based intervention is more effective in promoting physical activity among middle-age women in workplace. This is because pedometer-based programs  can monitor, motivate, and provide immediate feedback to the subject. This interventions motivate workers to walk more for example using stairs instead of lift, walking to workplace, and also walking for lunch. Group-based strategies which are used in pedometer-based group counseling shows that motivational and social supports play an important role in increasing daily life number of steps. Aerobic Training are not effective because it only reduce the weight and waist circumference but there is no increase in physical activity. It can be concluded that pedometer-based program encourage more walking compared to aerobic training.

I think this method might work if in Europe but not in most Asian Countries. This is because culture also play an important role. It is not yet our culture to walk or using bicycle to go to workplace. Maybe in Asian country like Japan can implement this method in promoting workplace health program due to their culture to walk or using public transportation to workplace.

References:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24126967