The Los Angeles Lift Off: A sociocultural environmental change intervention to integrate physical activity into the workplace

Purpose. To present the development and feasibility testing of a sociocultural environmental change intervention strategy aimed at integrating physical activity into workplace routine. Design. Randomized, controlled, post-test only, intervention trial. Setting. Los Angeles County Department of Health Services' worksites. Participants. Four hundred forty-nine employees, predominantly sedentary, overweight, middle-aged women of color, distributed across 26 meetings. Intervention. A single 10-min exercise break during work time involving moderate intensity, low-impact aerobic dance and calisthenic movements to music. Measures. Primary - level of participation, particularly among sedentary staff; secondary - self-perceived health status, satisfaction with current fitness level, and mood/affective state. Results. More than 90% of meeting attendees participated in the exercises. Among completely sedentary individuals, intervention participants' self-perceived health status ratings were significantly lower than controls' (OR = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.05, 0.60; P = 0.0003). Among all respondents not regularly physically active, intervention participants' levels of satisfaction with fitness were more highly correlated with self-ranked physical activity stage of change (r = 0.588) than the control participants' (r = 0.376, z = -2.32, p = 0.02). Among the completely sedentary, control participants reported significantly higher levels of energy than did intervention participants (P < 0.01). Conclusions. Captive audiences may be engaged in brief bouts of exercise as a part of the workday, regardless of physical activity level or stage of change. This experience may also appropriately erode sedentary individuals' self-perception of good health and fitness, providing motivation for adoption of more active lifestyles.