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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 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.

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.

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.

Most adults do not follow the minimum requirements for physical activity despite the benefits such activity can provide toward improving quality of life. On average, an adult spends 60% of daily hours in the workplace, making it essential to create working environments that are favorable to avoiding harmful effects on the health of workers. Toward this end, the application of physical activity programs in a work context is one of the possible interventions. This study aims to carry out a systematic review of the literature to identify the impact of physical activity programs applied in the workplace, on employee wellness and organizational productivity.

The search for reports was carried out in two databases, namely, Thomson Reuters Web of Science and Scopus, according to several inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) was applied to ensure the quality of the study. Microsoft Excel 2016 was used to organize the database to support the data analysis.

The sample comprised 64 reports published in international journals between 1986 and 2019. From these studies, six thematic clusters were formed: Workplace Physical Activity Interventions, Workplace Wellness, Physical Activity and Organizational Performance, Barriers to Developing Physical Activity Programs in the Workplace, Physical Activity and Sedentary Occupations and Workplace Physical Activity Incentives. The analysis of these clusters confirmed that the implementation of physical activity programs in this context could represent beneficial effects for workers and the organizational system by contributing to a reduction in the rates of absenteeism and presenteeism. However, there are still many organizations that do not implement such programs.

The results of this study are essential for managers of organizations to be able to implement physical activity programs in a work context, similarly to the application of a strategy of corporate social responsibility in an intra-organizational environment. This research may also be useful for professionals in the areas of sports and physical exercise, who want to build their business around physical exercise programs applied to a work context.

Past studies have shown wide variation in the obesity rates of Asian American ethnic subgroups. However, whether weight-related behaviors that occur during acculturation are associated with obesity disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups is unknown. This study examines the differences in body mass index (BMI) across Asian American ethnic subgroups and assesses how acculturation and weight-related behaviors influence these differences. The linear regression models employed in this study use data pools from 2011 to 2014 released by the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The sample comprises 3,248 foreign-born Asian Americans aged 18–59 years. Asian Americans who spoke fluent English had significantly lower BMIs than those who spoke poor English, but English fluency did not explain body size disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups. Filipino Americans had the highest average BMI (25.89 kg/m²) and obesity rate (53.12%), and they were particularly prone to engage in unhealthy weight-related behaviors, such as consuming fast food, drinking soda, and engaging in sedentary lifestyles. However, weight-related behaviors did not explain their high risk of obesity compared to other Asian American ethnic subgroups. The results underscore the potential for misinterpretation when pan-ethnic labels, such as Asian American, collapse the unique experiences of different immigrant origin groups. Future research may investigate whether other factors that affect the acculturation process, such as attitudes, self-identity, beliefs, or experiences with racism and discrimination, explain obesity disparities among Asian American ethnic subgroups.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe adolescents’ health-related behaviours from a socio-ecological perspective. Socio-ecological factors have been widely shown to be related to health behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and diet) in adolescence and to affect health. The review integrates evidence with socio-ecological factors (social relationships, family, peers, schooling and environment).

The data were collected from electronic databases and by manual search consisting of articles (n=90) published during 2002-2014. The selected articles were analysed using inductive content analysis and narrative synthesis.

The findings suggest that there was a complex set of relations connected to adolescent health behaviours, also encompassing socio-ecological factors. The authors tentatively conclude that socio-ecological circumstances influence adolescents’ health-related behaviour, but that this review does not provide the full picture. There seemed to be certain key factors with a relation to behavioural outcomes that might increase health inequality among adolescents.

School health education is an important pathway for interventions to reduce unhealthy behaviours among adolescents including those related to socio-ecological factors.

Some socio-ecological factors were strongly related to health behaviours in adolescence, which may indicate an important pathway to current and future health. This paper may help schoolteachers, nurses and other school staff to understand the relationships between socio-ecological factors and health-related behaviours, which may be useful in developing health education to reduce health disparities during adolescence.

Many in Generation Z are concerned about health, nutrition, and lifestyle. They are sensitive to the social determinants of health, represented through concerns about access to health care, viable and affordable housing, poverty, and unemployment. They are also concerned about food choices, their environmental footprint, and the way food is produced. There is similarly high awareness about the importance of nutrition for health. Despite engaging in physical exercise, Generation Z is also exposed to the risks associated with obesity and sedentary lifestyle.