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. 2020 Apr 8;55(3):144–154. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-101154

Table 1.

Summary of the study population, design and intervention characteristics of adult sedentary behaviour interventions ≥7 days with biomarker outcomes

Characteristic Count* Detail
Population / study characteristics (54 studies)
 Sample size Median n / study 57 Lowest=12, highest=1113
Total n 5217 Female n=3065 (48.4%), male n=3265 (51.6%)
 Location (continent and country: ISO 2-digit country codes) North America 20 USA 16, CA 4
Europe 19 UK 5, DK 4, SE 3, ES 2, NL 1, DK & GL 1, FI 1, IT 1, UK & NL & NO & PT 1
Australia 10
Asia 4 TW 2, CN 1, JP 1
Africa 1 ZA 1
 Ethnicity >50% Caucasian / ‘white’ 18
<50% Caucasian / ‘white’ 2
Not reported 33
 Clinical population Clinical condition 11 T2D 4, cancer 2, rheumatoid arthritis 2, obstructive sleep apnoea 1, intellectual disability 1, coronary artery disease 1
Clinical risk factors only 17 Adiposity 14, chronic disease risk (+adiposity) 3
Healthy / general 26
 Screening Sedentary job / behaviour 25 11 also screened for PA, 14 did not
Physical activity (PA) 30 11 also screened for PA, 19 did not
 Study design Randomised controlled trial 39 8 cluster / 31 individually randomised
34 parallel group / 3 crossover / 1 other †
Non-randomised controlled trial 5 1 cluster / 4 individually allocated
5 parallel group / 0 crossover
Multiarm (no controls) 5 1 cluster randomised / 4 individually randomised
Pre–post (single arm) 5
 Primary outcomes Includes sedentary 22
Includes biomarker(s) 10
Includes both 1
Includes neither 21 PA 8 / PA and diet 1, unstated 6, feasibility 5, fitness 1
Intervention characteristics (56 interventions)
 Duration 3 months or less 28
>3 to 6 months 16
>6 months 12
 Setting Workplace 27
Community 18
Other 11 Hospital 5, primary care 4, domestic 1, education 1
 N components Multicomponent 34 Workplace 13, community / other 21
Single component 22 Workplace 14, community / other 8
 Components‡ Counselling / education 41 Workplace 13, community / other 28
Environmental modification 34 Workplace 26, community / other 8
Prompting 12 Workplace 6, community / other 6
Structured 'activity' 5 Workplace 2, community / other 4
Device self-monitoring 23 Workplace 5, community / other 18
Device social comparison 7 Workplace 3, community / other 4
Financial incentives 2 Workplace 1, community / other 1
 Sedentary targets / messaging‡ Domain specific message 29
Accumulation 21
Quantitative volume target 14

*Count out of 54 studies or 56 interventions as indicated in the table unless other statistic is mentioned (eg, median).

†Almost a randomised controlled trial (parallel groups) except re-enrolled some controls into the intervention on completion.

‡Not mutually exclusive (interventions can have multiple components, multiple messages).

T2D, type 2 diabetes.

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