ABSTRACT
Prolonged physical inactivity and static work tasks may lead to serious health risks. Permanent low levels of physical loads are associated with musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, metabolic and mental disorders. A lack of physical activity (PA) is often a problem at office workplaces. However, PA interventions at office workplaces that aim at a quantifiable increase of PA have so far been performed rarely and the intervention effects on the PA behavior are often studied only through the methods of subjective self-assessment. For this reason a method inventory was developed consisting of objective PA assessment methods. The developed method inventory has been tested in a pilot intervention study at office workplaces. The current paper presents and discusses parts of the applied inventory. Several positive intervention effects could be observed: the intervention subjects spent more time standing and less time sitting during the work day, they showed a slight increase in physical activity intensity and felt better. No significant improvements concerning energy expenditure could be measured. The intervention subjects primarily used the breaks to perform additional PA. Since break times are limited there is still a lack of opportunities to perform PA directly at VDU workplaces. Therefore new innovative concepts are needed that directly increase PA and energy expenditure during office work.
