The co-creation of a lifestyle health behaviour intervention in desk-based remote workers

该项目将制定一项干预措施，以加强远程工作者与健康有关的生活方式行为。自新冠肺炎疫情爆发以来，英国在家工作的人数一直在上升。在2023年1月至2月期间，40%的英国工作人口报告称，在过去的七天里，至少有一次是在家工作。虽然远程工作有一些好处(例如，更好地平衡工作和生活，减少通勤时间)，但它会导致不健康的生活方式行为。与远程工作相关的不健康生活方式行为包括减少体力活动、长时间坐着、更频繁地吃零食。我们的研究小组对英国远程工作者的研究表明，与在办公室工作相比，在家工作的人不那么活跃，坐得更多，60%的参与者报告说，比起在家工作，坐着的时间更长。这些行为与体重增加、长期健康状况(例如糖尿病、癌症)、肌肉疼痛(例如背部疼痛、颈部疼痛)以及精神健康和健康障碍有关。自疫情流行以来，麦克米伦是许多组织之一，他们已经为其癌症支持联系中心团队实施了永久远程工作政策。这个办公桌团队通过电话提供关于癌症诊断的支持。自从实施在家工作以来，麦克米伦的一项健康评估显示，很高比例的员工报告在工作日没有太多活动，这引发了人们对他们当前和长期身心健康的担忧。我们将与麦克米伦合作开发一种干预措施，以增加这一基本但高度久坐且风险很高的劳动力的活动量，减少坐着的时间。干预措施将与麦克米伦员工和高级管理人员合作开发，潜在的干预组件(基于这项工作的发现)可能包括针对个人、组织和政策层面的在线教育和激励资源。干预措施的发展将以有助于改变行为的心理学理论为指导。我们将创建一个公众参与小组，由关键利益相关者(如经理、人力资源员工、员工)组成，在整个项目中提供他们的意见，以提高干预的可接受性和成功的可能性。该项目将包括四个阶段：1)通过跟踪设备和问卷监测偏远地区麦克米伦员工与健康相关的生活方式行为(例如，体力活动、坐着时间、饮食摄入量)。这些发现将有助于确定是否存在一天中的某些时间段或行为模式特别需要支持。2)与麦克米伦联系中心工作人员的访谈将探讨他们远程工作的经历、对身心健康和与健康相关的生活方式行为的影响、远程工作时的挑战以及克服这些挑战的方法。3)将与员工、经理和人力资源员工一起举办共同创造研讨会，在此期间，将根据第一阶段和第二阶段的调查结果提出方案，并讨论解决方案。4)调查实施和评估第三阶段制定的干预措施是否可行。可行性将基于参与者招募以及人们是否参与干预并完成拟议的评估措施等因素。我们将评估干预措施是否显示出促进运动和减少坐在这一劳动力队伍中的潜力。如果是这样，我们将在未来进行一项研究，以检验我们在更大的在家工作的员工群体(包括不同的组织)中进行干预的有效性。

This project will develop an intervention to enhance the health-related lifestyle behaviours of remote workers. Since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a rise in home workers in the UK. Between January and February 2023, 40% of the UK working population reported working from home at least once in the last seven days. While working remotely provides some benefits (e.g., better work-life balance, reduced commute time) it can result in unhealthy lifestyle behaviours.Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours associated with remote working include reduced physical activity, prolonged sitting, snacking more frequently. Work from our research group with UK remote workers has revealed that workers are less active and sit more when working from home versus working in an office, with 60% of participants reporting sitting for longer since working at home. These behaviours are linked to an increased risk of weight gain, long-term health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cancer), muscle pains (e.g., back pain, neck pain) and mental health and wellbeing disturbances.Since the pandemic, Macmillan are one of many organisations who have implemented a permanent remote working policy for their cancer support contact centre team. This desk-based team offer support regarding a cancer diagnosis over the phone. Since implementing home working, a wellbeing assessment at Macmillan revealed that a high percentage of employees reported not moving much during the working day, raising concerns over their current and longer-term physical and mental wellbeing.We will work with Macmillan to develop an intervention to increase movement and reduce sitting time within this essential, but highly sedentary and at-risk, workforce. The intervention will be developed in partnership with Macmillan employees and senior management, potential intervention components (based on the findings of this work) may include online educational and motivational resources, targeting the individual, organisational, and policy levels. Intervention development will be guided by psychological theories that help change behaviour.We will create a public engagement group, which will consist of key stakeholders (e.g., managers, HR staff, employees) to provide their opinions throughout the project to enhance likelihood of intervention acceptability and success. The project will consist of four stages:1) The health-related lifestyle behaviours (e.g., physical activity, sitting time, dietary intake) of remote Macmillan workers will be monitored via tracking devices and questionnaires. These findings will help identify if there are certain times of the day or patterns in behaviour where support is particularly required.2) Interviews with Macmillan contact centre staff will explore their experiences of remote working, the impact on physical and mental health and health-related lifestyle behaviours, challenges when working remotely, and ways to overcome these challenges.3) Co-creation workshops will be conducted with employees, managers, and HR staff, during which scenarios will be presented based on the findings of stages 1 and 2 and solutions discussed.4) An investigation into whether it is feasible to implement and evaluate the intervention developed in stage 3. Feasibility will be based on factors such as participant recruitment and whether people engage with the intervention and complete the proposed evaluation measures. We will assess whether the intervention shows the potential for promoting movement and reducing sitting in this workforce. If this is the case, we will conduct a future study to examine the effectiveness of our intervention within a larger group (including different organisations) of employees working from home.