How sedentary are people in 'sedentary' occupations? The physical activity of teachers in urban South India

Abstract

Aims. The aim of this study was to assess the total and occupational physical activity status of school and college teachers in Bangalore, South India and to evaluate the use of 'job description' as an indicator of occupational physical activity. Method. A self-administered questionnaire was given to a convenience sample of 198 (25 males and 173 females) school and college teachers. Results. Despite the categorization of 'teacher' in India as 'sedentary', our data indicate that the overall physical activity status of teachers varies considerably and is dependent on non-occupational physical activity, such as household chores and discretionary exercise. Thus, only 12% of teachers were truly sedentary, based on computations of the contributions of all measured physical activity domains, while 10% were heavily active. The contribution of other physical activity domains to the overall physical activity status in our data set was dependent on gender; in women, the energy expenditure related to household chores was 4-fold higher than in men (P < 0.01), while in men energy expenditure related to discretionary exercise was 3-fold higher than in women (P < 0.01). Conclusions. This study highlights the problems associated with extrapolating occupational activity using job descriptors to overall physical activity status. The findings have implications in epidemiological studies which use occupational activity as a surrogate for overall physical activity. However, the impact of potential misclassifications will need to be assessed within a socio-cultural context. © Society of Occupational Medicine 2004; all rights reserved.