Monitoring sedentary patterns in office employees: validity of an m-health tool (Walk@Work-App) for occupational health

Abstract

Objective: This study validated the Walk@Work-Application (W@W-App) for measuring occupational sitting and stepping. Methods: The W@W-App was installed on the smartphones of office-based employees (n = 17; 10 women; 26 ± 3 years). A prescribed 1-hour laboratory protocol plus two continuous hours of occupational free-living activities were performed. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) compared mean differences of sitting time and step count measurements between the W@W-App and criterion measures (ActivPAL3TM and SW200Yamax Digi-Walker). Results: During the protocol, agreement between self-paced walking (ICC = 0.85) and active working tasks step counts (ICC = 0.80) was good. The smallest median difference was for sitting time (1.5 seconds). During free-living conditions, sitting time (ICC = 0.99) and stepping (ICC = 0.92) showed excellent agreement, with a difference of 0.5 minutes and 18 steps respectively. Conclusions: The W@W-App provided valid measures for monitoring occupational sedentary patterns in real life conditions; a key issue for increasing awareness and changing occupational sedentariness.