Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 7;22(1):458.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12794-w.

Evaluating a multi-component intervention to reduce and break up office workers' sitting with sit-stand desks using the APEASE criteria

Marsha L Brierley  1   2   3 , Lindsey R Smith  1 , Daniel P Bailey  1   2   3 , Samson O Ojo  4   5 , David J Hewson  4 , Sofie A Every  2   3 , Taylor A Staines  1 , Angel M Chater  6   7
Affiliations

Evaluating a multi-component intervention to reduce and break up office workers' sitting with sit-stand desks using the APEASE criteria

Marsha L Brierley et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: Sedentary workplace interventions have had success in reducing excessive sitting time in office workers, but barriers to implementation and uptake remain. This study formally assessed a theory-derived, sit-stand desk intervention using the APEASE (Acceptability, Practicability, Effectiveness, Affordability, Side-effects, Equity) criteria.

Methods: Thirteen adults (eight female, mean age 38 ± 10 years) from the treatment arm of a sedentary behaviour intervention participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic codes were inductively assigned to data items followed by deductive charting using the APEASE criteria.

Results: The intervention was highly acceptable, practicable, safe to deploy, and helped workers reduce workplace sitting time, though individual preferences and workload mediated engagement. Affordability of sit-stand desks and Equity of access were potential barriers to uptake.

Conclusions: Through the lens of the APEASE criteria, this theory-derived, multi-component sit-stand desk intervention showed acceptability, practicability and effectiveness in reducing and breaking up sedentary time at work with minimal side effects. Using this approach with further tailoring and personalisation may help workers achieve greater reductions in workplace sitting, though affordability and equity should be considered further.

Keywords: Acceptability; Apease; Behaviour change; Feasibility; Intervention; Office worker; Sedentary.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Patterson R, McNamara E, Tainio M, de Sá TH, Smith AD, Sharp SJ, et al. Sedentary behaviour and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis. Eur J Epidemiol. 2018;33:811–829. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chau JY, Grunseit AC, Chey T, Stamatakis E, Brown WJ, Matthews CE, et al. Daily sitting time and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE. 2013;8:e80000–e80014. - PMC - PubMed
    1. van der Ploeg HP, Chey T, Korda RJ, Banks E, Bauman A. Sitting time and all-cause mortality risk in 222,497 Australian adults. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172:494–500. - PubMed
    1. Wilmot EG, Edwardson CL, Achana FA, Davies MJ, Gorely T, Gray LJ, et al. Sedentary time in adults and the association with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2012;55:2895–2905. - PubMed
    1. Bailey DP, Hewson DJ, Champion RB, Sayegh SM. Sitting time and risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Prev Med. 2019;57:408–416. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources