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Sedentary behavior, independent of physical activity, is a risk factor for both morbidity and mortality. Little is known about factors related to sedentary behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between sedentary behavior and the demographic characteristics, perceived physical activity (PA) environment, and PA behaviors of 72 full-time, university faculty members.

For this cross-sectional study, data were collected online using Survey Monkey®.

Participants spent an average of 473 and 328 minutes/weekend day in sedentary activity. There was a positive correlation between minutes spent in vigorous PA and minutes spent sedentary while watching TV (p=0.047). There was a negative correlation between minutes spent in moderate PA per week and minutes spent sedentary while playing video games (p=0.034). Participants’ perceived PA environment scores were inversely related to their minutes spent in sedentary behavior during a typical weekday (p=0.027) and positively related to their minutes spent sedentary while on their computers (p=0.022).

The study is the first to highlight the large proportion of time university faculty members spend in sedentary activities and factors that could be addressed to reduce this time.

The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle (<150 min of physical exercise/week) and associated factors of this behavior in Brazil.

An observational study was conducted through an online questionnaire in August–September 2020 (5.5 months after the beginning of the pandemic in the country). Socioeconomic, lifestyle, anthropometric, dietary and perceived stress data were evaluated as possible related factors to a sedentary lifestyle through multiple logistic regression analysis.

A total of 1,347 individuals were evaluated (median of 31 years old, 80.1% women), of whom 76.7% were considered sedentary. Associated factors to a sedentary lifestyle were being overweight; a greater difference between current weight and prepandemic weight; female sex; lower percentage of home-cooked meals; greater increase in the frequency of consumption of alcoholic beverages; higher frequency of consumption of cereals, sausages and sweets during the pandemic; and higher score of perceived stress.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have aimed to reveal the associated factors to a sedentary lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Protective factors against a sedentary lifestyle were eating breakfast, being a student, living with parents, a higher frequency of fruit consumption, a higher rate of alcohol consumption and a higher cognitive restriction of food intake during the pandemic. Most of the study participants were sedentary, especially women. A sedentary lifestyle was associated with worse lifestyle/eating habits and stress. Such findings encourage an interdisciplinary approach because habits and lifestyle have numerous interferences.

The workplace offers an ideal setting for facilitating physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours. Understanding employees’ current health behaviours is required to inform appropriate, tailored, health promotion interventions. The purpose of this paper is to compare the physical activity and sedentary behaviours over 12 months of employees within and across five UK organisations. The paper also explores the association of these health behaviours with objective and self-reported health outcomes; and investigates the association between physical activity and sedentary behaviours.

Self-reported physical activity and sedentary behaviours were recorded at four time points (baseline, three, six, 12 months). BMI, per cent body fat, waist circumference, blood pressure and resting heart rate were collected in health checks (baseline, 12 months). Well-being and health were collected via questionnaire.

Low physical activity and high sedentariness were evident. Sitting levels varied by occupational role and organisation. More activity was associated with improved health outcomes; no association was evident for sedentary behaviour. No direct effects of occupational role or organisation on health outcomes emerged after accounting for physical activity/sedentary behaviours. Physical activity and sedentary levels were weakly associated.

The low activity levels are of particular concern as linked to health outcomes for this sample. The weak association between behaviours suggests worksite interventions should target both behaviours.

This study provides insight into both the physical activity and sedentary behaviours of employees of large UK employers across different occupational sectors over 12 months; importantly it is informed by the most recent guidance for these health behaviours.

To provide insight into how office workers respond to sedentary health messages following the introduction of the Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines.

Via online survey, office workers (n = 185) reported awareness of the Guidelines and sedentary risk, availability of workplace movement-based initiatives, and measures of sitting time, intention, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers to sedentary behaviour. Participants then viewed one of two brief messages (“Occupational Risk” or “Strategies”); indicated their message receptivity and provided written recommendations. Participants who consented to a second survey (n = 126) completed sitting time and psychological measures again after four weeks.

Only 23% were aware of the Guidelines; willingness to follow public health guidance was mixed. Barriers to adoption were apparent for existing initiatives. Message receptivity was high for both messages. For the follow-up survey, an improvement in psychological variables and workplace sitting was reported in those who viewed the Occupational Risk compared to the Strategies message. Qualitative analysis revealed lack of organisational support and called for increased employer responsibility.

As participants self-selected into the study, the sample may be more health-conscious than the typical office worker.

Workers are receptive to brief messages and the Occupational Risk message showed promise in promoting change. However, sedentary exposure is viewed as an organisational-level issue. A “whole of workplace” approach is needed with co-designed strategies tailored to the culture and working practices within the organisation.

This study offers insight into avenues for improving the management of prolonged sitting and workplace sedentary behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to test the user acceptability (Phase 1) and effects (Phase 2) of completing sedentary work while using a seated active workstation.

In Phase 1, 45 sedentary employees completed an acceptability questionnaire immediately after performing sedentary work tasks (typing, mousing) while using the seated active workstation for 30 minutes. In Phase 2, the paper tested the differential effects of completing sedentary work tasks at two different workstations (sedentary workstation vs seated active workstation) on physiological (energy expenditure, muscle activity, heart rate, blood pressure), cognitive (learning, memory, attention) and work performance (typing and mousing ability) outcomes among 18 sedentary employees.

In Phase 1, 96 percent of participants reported they would use the seated active workstation “daily” if provided access in their office. In Phase 2, working while using the seated active workstation increased energy expenditure (p<0.001; d=3.49), heart rate (p<0.001; d=1.26), systolic blood pressure (p=0.02; d=0.79), and muscle activation of the biceps femoris (p<0.001; d=1.36) and vastus lateralis (p<0.001; d=1.88) over the sedentary workstation. No between-group differences were observed for any measures of cognitive function. Mouse point and click time was slower while using the seated active workstation (p=0.02).

These findings suggest this seated active workstation to be acceptable by users and effective for offsetting occupational sedentary time without compromising cognitive function and/or work performance.

The present study is the first to test the potential of this seated active workstation in any capacity.

This study aims to investigate the relationships among screen time-based sedentary behaviour, eating self-regulatory skills and weight status among private university students during the Movement Control Order (MCO).

A total of 186 private university students was enrolled in this cross-sectional study using a combination of snowball and purposive sampling approaches. Anthropometric measurements, including body height, body weight before and during the MCO enforcement were self-reported by the respondents. Screen-time based sedentary behaviour sedentary behaviour was evaluated using HELENA sedentary behaviour questionnaire, whereas the Self-Regulation of Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (SREBQ) was used to determine the eating self-regulatory skills in MCO.

Respondents spent most of the time on the internet for non-study purposes (148 ± 77.7 min). It is also noted that 64.5% of the respondents had medium eating self-regulatory skill during the MCO, with an average score of 3.0 ± 0.5. Findings from path analysis confirmed that poor eating self-regulation significantly contributed to the weight gain during home confinement (ß = −0.24, p = 0.01). In conclusion, eating self-regulation, but not total screen time, emerged as the determinant for weight gain during the COVID-19 lockdown.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this study was among the few that investigated sedentary behaviour, eating self-regulatory skills and weight status of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to explore cross-border and sedentary workers' job satisfaction, analyzing the role played by employability dimensions (occupational expertise, anticipation/optimization and personal flexibility), a job resource (autonomy) and job demands (job insecurity and toxic leadership), using the job demands–resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework. Moreover, this study tried to detect possible discrepancies between the two subsamples.

The study involved a sample of 250 employees, 40% of whom were frontier workers. Data were collected with a self-report questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS 25. A hierarchical regression analysis and t-test for independent samples were performed.

The findings evidenced differences between the two subsamples concerning the job satisfaction predictors. Specifically, for cross-border workers, optimization/anticipation appeared significantly positively related to job satisfaction. For sedentary workers, toxic leadership and job insecurity were significantly negatively related to job satisfaction. Autonomy was positively related to the outcome for both samples. Furthermore, cross-border workers reported a higher level of optimization/anticipation, personal flexibility and job satisfaction than sedentary workers.

This paper contributed to fill a gap currently present in the literature on the cross-border population, with a specific focus on job satisfaction. This study confirmed the existence of peculiar working dynamics for cross-border workers.

This study aims at determining the risk of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors on overweight and obesity among primary school children aged 10–13 years in Tanzania.

A case-control study was conducted from January to March 2020 involving 69 overweight/obese children as cases and 138 normal weight children as controls. Cases were identified as having body mass index-for-age ≥ +1 standard deviation (SD) and controls as those having BMI-for-age range between −2 SD to <+1 SD. A validated questionnaire was used for data collection on daily physical activities and sedentary behavior types, frequency duration and activity score. An independent sample t-test was used to compare means of activity score between cases and controls. Binary logistic regression was used to predict risk factors for overweight/obesity.

Risk factors for overweight/obesity were listening to music and/or radio for >2 h/week (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.2–6.1) and walking for exercise <2 h/week (OR 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–4.1). On the other hand, rope skipping for >2 h/week (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03–0.7) was a protective factor against overweight/obesity. Controls had a significantly higher mean score of being active during lunch breaks compared to cases (p = 0.012). Cases had higher weight, height and percentage body fat than controls (p < 0.001). The home environment provided more avenues for physical activity than the school environment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is original research work and the first case-control study to predict physical activity and sedentary behaviors as risk factors for overweight and obesity in Tanzanian school children.

Political Science in the United States has focused too much on variable-oriented, quantitative methods and thus lost its ability to ask “big questions.” Stein Rokkan (d. 1979) was an eminent comparativist who asked big questions and provided such qualitative tools as conceptual maps, grids, and clustered comparisons. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), arguably the first social scientist, also asked big questions and provided a universal explanation about the dialectical relationship between nomads and sedentary people. This article analyzes to what extent Ibn Khaldun's concepts of asabiyya and sedentary culture help understand the rise and fall of the Muslim civilization. It also explores my alternative, class-based perspective in Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment. Moreover, the article explores how Rokkan's analysis of cultural, geographical, economic, and religio-political variations within Western European states can provide insights to the examination of such variations in the Muslim world.

The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in both American and Japanese college students and their diet, exercise, and sedentary behavior.

The total of 407 college students from the USA (162 students aged 17‐53 years) and from Japan (245 students aged 18‐32 years) answered the survey in order to assess their body types, diet, exercise, and sedentary behavior.

Although the author found a lower mean BMI (body mass index) in the Japanese sample than in their American counterparts, there were not many differences in their diet, exercise, and sedentary behavior between them. The Japanese sample consumed their breakfast more regularly, were more likely to live with their parents, went to fast food restaurants less often and spent less money there than their American counterparts.

The present study used self‐report survey method and it can be considered as a pilot study. In the future study, the height and weight of participants may be actually measured for obtaining more reliable data. Breakfast skipping, single living, and frequent usage of fast food restaurant might be crucial factors for overweight and obesity problems in American college students.

The present study is the first cross‐cultural study regarding body types, diet, exercise, and sedentary behavior between American and Japanese college students.