Physical activity levels at work and outside of work among commercial construction workers

Abstract

Objective: Characterize the number of minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activities at work and outside of work during seven consecutive days, in a sample of 55 commercial construction workers.

Methods: Workers wore accelerometers during work and outside-of-work hours for seven consecutive days and completed brief survey at the seventh day of data collection.

Results: From the directly measured physical activity, the average number per participant of moderate minutes of occupational physical activity and physical activity outside of work obtained in short bouts were 243 minutes (65%) and 130 minutes (35%), respectively. Directly measured minutes of vigorous occupational physical activity were significant and positively correlated with self-reported fatigue.

Conclusions: Among commercial construction workers, physical activity from work contributes significantly, approximately two thirds, toward a worker's total amount of weekly minutes of moderate physical activity.

Figure 1

Directly measured minutes of vigorous occupational physical activity versus self-reported minutes of moderate occupational physical activity (n=46, difference in total population sample due to item non-response or missing)