Breaking the Habit? Identifying Discrete Dimensions of Sitting Automaticity and Their Responsiveness to a Sitting-Reduction Intervention.

SEDENTARY lifestyles; WORK environment; CONFIDENCE intervals; CLINICAL health psychology; SELF-evaluation; HABIT; COGNITION; BEHAVIOR; STATE governments; SITTING position; TREATMENT effectiveness; EMPLOYEES; HEALTH behavior; FACTOR analysis; LOCUS of control; QUESTIONNAIRES; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHI-squared test; INTRACLASS correlation; DATA analysis software; BEHAVIOR modification; SECONDARY analysis

Background: Growing evidence suggests that sitting is activated automatically on exposure to associated environments, yet no study has yet sought to identify in what ways sitting may be automatic. Method: This study used data from a 12-month sitting-reduction intervention trial to explore discrete dimensions of sitting automaticity, and how these dimensions may be affected by an intervention. One hundred ninety-four office workers reported sitting automaticity at baseline, and 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months after receiving one of two sitting-reduction intervention variants. Results: Principal component analysis extracted two automaticity components, corresponding to a lack of awareness and a lack of control. Scores on both automaticity scales decreased over time post-intervention, indicating that sitting became more mindful, though lack of awareness scores were consistently higher than lack of control scores. Conclusion: Attempts to break office workers' sitting habits should seek to enhance conscious awareness of alternatives to sitting and afford office workers a greater sense of control over whether they sit or stand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Behavioral Medicine is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)