Does Physically Demanding Work Hinder a Physically Active Lifestyle in Low Socioeconomic Workers? A Compositional Data Analysis Based on Accelerometer Data

Abstract

Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) is strongly associated with socioeconomic position (SEP). Few studies have investigated if demanding occupational physical activity (OPA) could impede a physically active lifestyle in low SEP groups. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between OPA and LTPA among low SEP men and women. We used cross-sectional data from 895 low SEP workers who wore accelerometers for 1–5 consecutive workdays. The associations between the relative importance of activities performed during work and leisure time were assessed using compositional regression models stratified on sex. Compositional isotemporal substitution models were used to assess the implication of increasing occupational walking, standing, or sitting on LTPA. We found dissimilarity in LTPA between the sexes, with men spending more waking leisure time sedentary than women (men ~67%, women ~61%), suggesting women performed more household tasks. In men, the associations between OPA and LTPA were weak. In women, the strongest association was observed between the relative importance of occupational walking and leisure time standing (βfalse^ = −0.16; p = 0.01), where reallocating 15 min work time to occupational walking showed an expected decrease in leisure time standing of 7 min. If this time was spent on additional sedentary leisure time, it could have adverse health consequences.

The Mediating Effect of Unhealthy Behaviors and Body Mass Index in the Relation Between High Physical Workload and Self-Rated Poor Health in Male Construction Workers

“…For example, high physical workload and work-related fatigue can exhaust workers leaving less energy to perform physical activity in leisure time. 28,31 The contrasting findings between our and previous research can also be due to differences in methodology including the measurement of physical activity. While most previous studies explicitly measured leisure time physical activity, in the present study, the questions about physical activity left room for the inclusion of leisure time as well as occupational time physical activity.…”

Movement behavior profiles and obesity: a latent profile analysis of 24-h time-use composition among Danish workers

“…Work and leisure periods were considered valid if they comprised at least 4 h or 75% of the worker's average work and leisure time. Time in bed was considered valid if it was at least 4 h in duration [23]. Workers who had measurements on at least one valid day were included in further analyses.…”

Correction of bias in self-reported sitting time among office workers – a study based on compositional data analysis

“…This method, which has been explained in more detail in the background section, is based on the notion that a log-ratio transformation of compositional variables will result in data expressed in an Euclidian space, which can then be analyzed using conventional statistical methods developed for non-constrained, normally distributed data (29). Thus, we expressed sitting, both self-reported and objectively measured, in terms of an isometric log-ratio (ILR), as used in several other studies applying CoDA to data on time spent in physical activities (18,29,32,34,46,47). The ILR expresses sitting in terms of the ratio of the percentages of time spent sitting to time spent nonsitting, ie, %sit/%non-sit, log-transformed and multiplied by 1/√2, ie, (noting that %non-sit equals 100 -%sit):…”

“…After a log-transformation according to CoDA, data can, however, be analyzed using standard statistical methods. CoDA has received considerable attention in some research fields (30), but has only recently been implemented in studies of physical activities and sedentariness (29,(31)(32)(33)(34).…”