Guest editorial

Citation

Dugdill, L. (2008), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 1 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijwhm.2008.35401caa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Volume 1, Issue 3

The main focus of this Special Issue is on “Physical activity and the workplace”. Never before has there been greater concern – from governments, health agencies and public health specialists – regarding the long-term social, economic and health impacts of sedentary behaviour (Department of Health, 2004; World Health Organization, 2004). In 2007, the American College of Sports Medicine published their revised guidelines for physical activity and public health, and they currently recommend that healthy adults (under age 65) should participate in moderately intense cardio (aerobic) activity for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week or do vigorously intense cardio activity for 20 minutes a day, three days a week (American College of Sports Medicine, 2007). In addition 8-10 strength training exercises should be performed, with 8-12 repetitions of each exercise, twice a week. Also, in 2008, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK published public health guidance for promoting physical activity at work (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2008). However, despite these various guidelines approximately 60 per cent of the world’s population is currently insufficiently active to derive the associated health benefits (World Health Organisation, 2004).

Accommodating physical activity into lifestyles which have become increasingly time-constrained is a major problem for the working population (Bishop, 2004). However, the workplace affords great opportunities for employees to accumulate their minimum 30 minutes a day of moderate activity required for health. This could be through organisational approaches to promoting physical activity such as environmental change (e.g. improving the attractiveness of stairwells), or policy changes (e.g. having health incentive schemes which give workers time to exercise during the working day), or through individual-oriented approaches (e.g. led physical activity sessions/classes or motivational counselling) (Mutrie and Woods, 2003). Historically, managers have not seen physical activity promotion at work as a priority; however, the increasing evidence of the effectiveness of such programmes may encourage employers to reconsider (Dugdill et al., 2008).

Hence the timely importance of this Special Issue, which introduces papers reporting the effectiveness of a workplace walking intervention and a stair walking intervention. A third paper assesses the relationship between exercise and self-reported work performance, and the final research paper reports on the validation of an instrument to measure presenteeism in Catalan-speaking populations. The final case study paper details the development and impact of a workplace health strategy in the North West of England. The work selected for this Special Issue has been conducted across Europe and in Australia.

The first paper from N. Gilson, J. McKenna, A. Puig-Ribera, W. Brown and N. Burton presents an international walking intervention study conducted in Australia, Spain and the UK, entitled “The International Universities Walking Project: employee step counts, sitting times and health status”. The aim of this work was to explore associations between workday step counts, sitting times, waist circumference and blood pressure in three university settings. Daily workday step counts were inversely associated with sitting time, women’s waist circumference and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Spanish university employees had the highest activity rates (workday step counts) compared with the public health criterion of 10,000 steps/daily, the lowest levels of “sitting down”, and better overall health indices. The results overall suggest that walking in the workplace is an important contributor to daily physical activity levels and population health.

H. Blake, S. Lee, T. Stanton and T. Gorely report a stair walking study, implemented within a hospital setting in England, which aimed to assess the impact of an environmental stair-use intervention using “point of decision” prompts. Observational data was collected using covert method (infra-red sensors) placed on the stairway. This study reported no statistically significant differences in walking on either stairway through the introduction and removal of promotional posters – only a small number of employees felt encouraged to use the stairs as a result of the prompts. Barriers to stair use included carrying bags or files, or accompanying patients. It is important that future research investigates how point of decision prompts for stair walking can be made more effective, as climbing stairs is a simple way for employees to incorporate physical activity into their daily lifestyle.

In their paper, “Exercising at work and self-reported work performance”, J.C. Coulson, J. McKenna and M. Field present a randomised crossover trial, which assesses the interplay between workplace exercise on self-reported workplace performance. Importantly. this mixed-methods study compared individuals on days when they exercised versus days when they did not, so that performance effects could be attributable to exercising. Self-directed exercise – especially that which fits into a typical one-hour lunch break – was associated with mood benefits. Self-reported work performance favoured the exercising condition. Exercising was also associated with beneficial changes in work attitudes regarding tasks, colleagues and self. Overall, the findings suggest that the positive changes in self-reported work performance were most likely linked to exercise-induced improvement in mood.

A sister paper to this is “Measuring presenteeism in Catalan employees: linguistic adaptation and validation”. A. Puig-Ribera, J. McKennan and N. Gilson present a study testing the reliability and validity of a Catalan version of the Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ), which has been used extensively to measure presenteeism, but not previously in Catalan-speaking populations. The authors explain that instruments designed to measure the effect of health on productivity can help to inform intervention programmes aimed at improving employees’ presenteeism. Although this preliminary study has limitations, such as sample size and population range, it provides results that support the psychometric integrity of the WLQ. Translation of such instruments into other languages can enable research studies to be replicated in a wider range of international settings, and thus facilitate informative comparative studies, and so is valuable to the development of the academic field.

Finally, M. Dooris, L. Sedgley and L. Dugdill present a case study paper entitled “A reflective analysis of the development of a regional workplace health strategy in the North West of England”. This paper reports on the development processes and impact of a strategy aimed at improving the health of employees, in an area which is characterised by high levels of sickness absence and health inequalities. As few strategies are ever evaluated, it provides a useful insight for managers and organisations who are dealing with the challenges of either workplace health strategy development, or implementation, or both.

In summary, the articles in this Special Issue provide a critical insight into the value of workplace physical activity interventions, their implementation and impact on employee health status. In a sedentary world it is becoming increasingly important for managers to take all possible opportunities to promote physical activity within the workplace, which in the longer term should benefit “worker wellness” and productivity. Finally, a well-designed workplace health strategy can influence the “joined-up” actions of organisations in order to maximise the health status of workers in the future.

Lindsey DugdillGuest Editor