Background: Workplaces that provide opportunities for physical activity without requiring extra time for activity could help counteract the obesity epidemic. Desk ellipticals can contribute to activity-supportive workplace environments; however, the feasibility of engaging employees in pedaling ellipticals during simultaneous office work has not been well evaluated.
Objective: We aim to present the rationale and methods from an ongoing randomized trial with overweight and obese employees that will evaluate (1) the effects of pedaling a compact desk elliptical on work performance and (2) the influence of different incentive types and schedules on desk pedaling quantity.
Methods: Overweight and obese medical center employees are being recruited in dyads for a 2 (gift card type: healthier food vs Amazon) by 3 (gift card schedule: immediate incentive contingent on individual pedaling quantity; immediate incentive partially contingent on dyads' joint pedaling quantity; and delayed noncontingent pedaling incentive) cluster randomized within-subjects factorial trial. All participants receive a Bluetooth-enabled desk elliptical for 4 weeks and access to a mobile app that provides real-time pedaling feedback. The primary aims are to assess (1) change in employee work performance from pre- to postelliptical installation via employee and supervisor ratings and (2) effects of gift card type and schedule on quantity of objectively measured desk pedaling completed.
Results: Data collection is ongoing. We expect to complete main outcome analyses in 2020.
Conclusions: This trial represents one of the earliest attempts to assess the effects of desk pedaling and pedaling-incentive types in real-world offices. It could help bridge the research-to-practice gap by providing evidence on whether desk pedaling can be sustained without compromising work performance.
International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/16275.
Keywords: built environment; environment design; mHealth; obesity; occupational health; physical activity; reinforcement; workplace.
©Liza S Rovniak, Marc A Adams, Christopher N Sciamanna, Lan Kong, Nicole Sullivan, Sara Costalas, Melissa Bopp, Ashley Kuzmik. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 14.01.2020.