Evaluation of a Workplace Active Rest Program in Office Workers With Comparison of a Prospective and Retrospective Survey

Abstract

Physical activity-related workplace interventions can be counterstrategies for physical inactivity due to office work. Newly introduced programs should be evaluated for success. This study aimed to evaluate the intervention of a workplace active rest program and to compare a prospective and retrospective design of evaluation. A Germany-wide multicenter evaluation of a 3-month workplace active rest program (30 min, once a week) was carried out at 14 locations with a longitudinal pre/post design by means of an anonymous questionnaire (npre = 405, npost = 369). The participants’ program-related changes in targeted characteristics regarding posture, function, complaints and physical awareness were collected with a questionnaire in a prospective design and afterward retrospectively. The prospective evaluation showed a significant improvement in the target characteristic “postural muscles in the neck area”. In the retrospective survey, all target characteristics improved significantly. There were no differences between locations. The workplace active rest program in this study had positive effects on the perception of postural neck muscle status regardless of prospective or retrospective approach. Selection of survey mode should depend on desired outcome and consecutive influencing factors. In this specific case, retrospective survey could give more indirect information about overall satisfaction with the program and job although being influenced by response bias. Recall bias should be relatively small for shorter time periods assessed. Future studies should account for corresponding bias and specifics of target characteristics regardless of the chosen approach to survey.

Evaluation and Comparison of Relaxation-Related Workplace Interventions Among Office Workers at an Insurance Institution: An Intervention Study

“…In a previous study at the same institution regarding a workplace active rest program comparing prospective and retrospective evaluation, retrospective assessment reported more positive effects. 24 Retrospective evaluation seems to be more associated with outcome satisfaction. 57 Furthermore, the overall experience with the procedure may influence retrospective analysis.…”

“…Physical activity as a workplace intervention had positive effects in the same setting as a 12-week course. 24 Perhaps, Tai Chi could be a sufficient combination of relaxation and physical activity intervention at the workplace. Future studies should specifically evaluate such effects of Tai Chi as a workplace intervention.…”

“…It was part of a health initiative at the institution that consisted of 2 offerings for courses during working hours. The first offer was for a workplace active rest program reported here 24 and the second is reported in this study as an as an intervention study without a control group. For this purpose, a pre- and post-status was surveyed at the end of the courses for the subjective perception of stress (for a description of the questionnaire, see the section on surveys), see Figure 1 .…”