Merling Phaswana, Sunday O Onagbiye, Philippe Jean-Luc Gradidge
{"title":"Exploring experiences and perceptions of early withdrawal from a height-adjustable sit-to-stand desk intervention among South African office workers.","authors":"Merling Phaswana, Sunday O Onagbiye, Philippe Jean-Luc Gradidge","doi":"10.1186/s12889-025-22415-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The increasing sedentary behaviour and burden of non-communicable diseases among office workers raise significant concerns. Height-adjustable sit-to-stand desks offer a potential solution, yet uptake remains challenging, limiting their effectiveness and long-term adoption. The experiences of office workers who withdrew from a height-adjustable sit-to-stand desk intervention need to be explored to inform program refinement.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A qualitative approach was used, with pre-identified themes guiding data collection, while subthemes emerged inductively from transcripts and field notes. Twelve participants with a mean age of 46.0 years were conveniently sampled. These office workers withdrew from a height-adjustable standing desk randomised controlled trial and did not form any part of other studies. One-on-one semi-structured interviews guided data collection about the participants' experiences and reasons for early withdrawal from the intervention. Data were thematically analysed using Atlas.ti 23.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Most participants were female (n = 10, 83.3%). All participants completed high school, while 41.7% completed a postgraduate degree from a university and credit bureau company. Despite the participants' understanding of the benefits of height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations, most of the participants discontinued the intervention due to perceived barriers that aligned with the themes: \"discomforts and dislikes\", \"applicability and practicality\", \"people's perception-i.e., what other people will say\" and \"transitioning to electronic sit-to-stand desks\".</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The findings of this study may assist in formulating a policy to improve compliance with height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations in the workplace. Future studies should consider individual preferences, design, functionality, knowledge, and motivation to ensure effective implementation, utilisation, and compliance with height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9039,"journal":{"name":"BMC Public Health","volume":"25 1","pages":"1209"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Public Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-22415-x","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The increasing sedentary behaviour and burden of non-communicable diseases among office workers raise significant concerns. Height-adjustable sit-to-stand desks offer a potential solution, yet uptake remains challenging, limiting their effectiveness and long-term adoption. The experiences of office workers who withdrew from a height-adjustable sit-to-stand desk intervention need to be explored to inform program refinement.
Methods: A qualitative approach was used, with pre-identified themes guiding data collection, while subthemes emerged inductively from transcripts and field notes. Twelve participants with a mean age of 46.0 years were conveniently sampled. These office workers withdrew from a height-adjustable standing desk randomised controlled trial and did not form any part of other studies. One-on-one semi-structured interviews guided data collection about the participants' experiences and reasons for early withdrawal from the intervention. Data were thematically analysed using Atlas.ti 23.
Results: Most participants were female (n = 10, 83.3%). All participants completed high school, while 41.7% completed a postgraduate degree from a university and credit bureau company. Despite the participants' understanding of the benefits of height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations, most of the participants discontinued the intervention due to perceived barriers that aligned with the themes: "discomforts and dislikes", "applicability and practicality", "people's perception-i.e., what other people will say" and "transitioning to electronic sit-to-stand desks".
Conclusions: The findings of this study may assist in formulating a policy to improve compliance with height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations in the workplace. Future studies should consider individual preferences, design, functionality, knowledge, and motivation to ensure effective implementation, utilisation, and compliance with height-adjustable sit-to-stand workstations.
期刊介绍:
BMC Public Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health. The journal has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental, behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the community.