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，以加强远程工作人员与健康有关的生活方式行为。自2019冠状病毒病大流行以来，英国在家工作的人数有所增加。在2023年1月至2月期间，40%的英国工作人口报告在过去7天内至少在家工作一次。虽然远程工作带来了一些好处（例如，更好地平衡工作与生活，减少通勤时间），但它可能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包括体力活动减少、久坐、频繁吃零食。我们对英国远程工作者的研究小组发现，与在办公室工作相比，在家工作的人更不活跃，坐得更多，60%的参与者报告说，在家工作后，他们坐的时间更长了。这些行为与体重增加、长期健康状况（如糖尿病、癌症）、肌肉疼痛（如背痛、颈部疼痛）以及心理健康和福祉障碍的风险增加有关。自疫情爆发以来，麦克米伦是众多为其癌症支持联络中心团队实施永久远程工作政策的组织之一。这个基于桌面的团队通过电话提供有关癌症诊断的支持。麦克米伦公司（Macmillan）的一项健康评估显示，自从实施在家办公以来，很大一部分员工表示自己在工作日不怎么运动，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，以增加运动，减少这群必不可少但久坐不动的高危人群的坐着时间。干预将与麦克米伦员工和高级管理层合作开发，潜在的干预成分（基于这项工作的发现）可能包括在线教育和激励资源，针对个人，组织和政策层面。干预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，该小组将由关键利益相关者（例如，经理、人力资源人员、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。该项目将分为四个阶段：1)将通过跟踪设备和调查问卷对麦克米伦远程员工的健康相关生活方式行为（如体力活动、久坐时间、饮食摄入）进行监测。这些发现将有助于确定是否在一天中的某些时间或行为模式中特别需要支持。2)对麦克米伦联络中心员工的采访将探讨他们的远程工作经历，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)与员工、经理和人力资源人员进行共同创造研讨会，在此期间，将根据第一阶段和第二阶段的发现展示场景，并讨论解决方案。4)对第三阶段制定的干预措施的实施和评价是否可行进行调查。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。我们将评估干预是否显示出促进运动和减少静坐的潜力。如果是这样的话，我们将进行一项未来的研究，以检验我们的干预在更大的群体（包括不同的组织）中在家工作的员工的有效性。

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.