Sedentary behavior and related factors among full-time, university faculty

Sedentary behavior, independent of physical activity, is a risk factor for both morbidity and mortality. Little is known about factors related to sedentary behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between sedentary behavior and the demographic characteristics, perceived physical activity (PA) environment, and PA behaviors of 72 full-time, university faculty members.

For this cross-sectional study, data were collected online using Survey Monkey®.

Participants spent an average of 473 and 328 minutes/weekend day in sedentary activity. There was a positive correlation between minutes spent in vigorous PA and minutes spent sedentary while watching TV (p=0.047). There was a negative correlation between minutes spent in moderate PA per week and minutes spent sedentary while playing video games (p=0.034). Participants’ perceived PA environment scores were inversely related to their minutes spent in sedentary behavior during a typical weekday (p=0.027) and positively related to their minutes spent sedentary while on their computers (p=0.022).

The study is the first to highlight the large proportion of time university faculty members spend in sedentary activities and factors that could be addressed to reduce this time.