Standing up to sedentary behaviour: evaluating the utility of behavioural choice theory

Background: Prolonged time spent sedentary has been linked with numerous adverse health outcomes. However sedentary-reducing interventions are sparse and none measure the effectiveness of behaviour change theories being employed.

Purpose: To evaluate the utility of an intervention governed by behavioural choice theory to reduce and break up sedentary time among adults.

Methods: Participants (N=45; 62% female; 18-65 years) wore the ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer to objectively measure sedentary behaviour for 7 days at baseline. Participants were then randomised into 3 groups (intervention n=15, prompt n=15 or control n=15). Participants continued wearing the ActiGraph wGT3X-BT during the intervention phase for a further 7 days, where they would either receive messages governed by behavioural choice theory (intervention), receive neutral messages (prompt), or receive no messages (control).

Results: A non-statistically significant reduction of 0.63% in time spent in sedentary was seen in the intervention group after 1 week of intervention No significant between-group differences were observed attributed to being underpowered. Compliance with the study was very high as 90% of participants fulfilled minimum accelerometer wear time requirements.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated a practical methodological approach to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention underpinned by behavioural choice theory to bring out reductions in sedentary time. It is recommended that future research is power sufficiently to detect group differences.