Breaking up Sitting With a Treadmill Desk in Office Workers

Sitting for long uninterrupted periods of time can increase risk of heart disease, diabetes and early death, even if you take part in the United Kingdom government guidelines for physical activity of 21/2 hours per week of exercise. Effective interventions to reduce the risk of these diseases are therefore needed. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of regularly breaking up sitting time with light intensity treadmill desk walking among office workers on health markers, sitting time and physical activity. If using a treadmill desk leads to benefits in these disease risk markers then this could be an effective strategy to improve employee health in the workplace. Participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. After baseline activity and health measures, they will take part in the study for 4 weeks. Intervention group: Participants will have a treadmill desk placed in their office or a nearby location and will be asked to walk while working on the treadmill desk continuously for 20 minutes at a self-selected slow pace each hour for a minimum of 6 hours per shift. There will be one treadmill desk between 2-3 people. Control group: Participants will be asked to work as usual at their regular workstation with no changes in their physical activity and dietary habits. Sitting time and physical activity will be measured at baseline and during the last week f the intervention. A range of health and psychological measures will be taken at baseline and post-intervention.