ALBERT

Description: Active travel can support the achievement of recommended levels of physical activity. Monitoring travel behavior of university students and staff provides a useful insight into patterns of regional travel and population level changes in physical activity. This study sought to evaluate current travel and physical activity behaviors in a university population and to determine whether these changed over time. An online survey of travel behavior and physical activity was conducted at the University of Sydney, Australia. The survey was actively promoted for three weeks prior to the release of the survey among staff and students, which asked about travel behavior on a specific day in September 2017. The survey questions were the same as those used in a similar online survey conducted across the University in 2012. In total, 4359 People completed the survey, representing 10.8% of staff and 4.1% of students. Approximately two thirds of survey respondents were students, in both the 2012 and 2017 surveys. Compared with 2012, there was an increase in active travel to the University in 2017 from increased walking and train travel. Compared to 2012, in 2017 there was an increase in average minutes walked by about nine minutes, and less time spent sitting. Trip lengths increased, with 68% of trips taking longer than 30 min in 2017. The amount of time spent in low–moderate levels physical activity increased between 2012 and 2017, potentially related to active travel behavior. Citywide changes towards a system-wide transport fare structure was the biggest change in the transport environment between the two surveys and may have contributed to increased train travel.

Description: Introduction: With two thirds of adults in paid employment and one third physically inactive, workplaces are an important setting for promoting more physical activity. We explored the attitudes and practices of employees and managers from different industries towards sitting and moving at work, to inform the development of acceptable solutions for encouraging businesses to adopt activity-promoting workplaces. Method: We conducted focus groups with employees and structured interviews with upper/middle managers from 12 organisations in a range of industries (e.g., education, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, insurance, mining). Topics focused on past and current workplace health and wellness initiatives, workplace culture and environment related to physical activity, responsibility for employee physical activity patterns at work, and enablers of/barriers to activity promoting workplaces. Results: Physical activity was not an explicit priority in existing occupational health and wellness initiatives. Instead, there was a strong focus on education about preventing and managing injuries, such as manual handling among non-office workers and desk-based ergonomics for office workers. Physical activity was viewed as a strategy for maintaining work ability and preventing injury, particularly in blue-collar staff, rather than for chronic disease prevention. Managers noted structural/organisational barriers/enablers to promoting physical activity at work (e.g., regulations, costs, competing concerns), while employees tended to focus on individual constraints such as time and geographic location. The issues of "initiative overload" and making physical activity a part of “business as usual” emerged as strong themes from employees and managers. Conclusions: While there is stakeholder enthusiasm for creating activity-promoting workplaces, multi-level support is needed to make physical activity an integral part of day-to-day business. The synergism between occupational health and safety priorities could be leveraged to facilitate the creation of activity-promoting workplaces.