The effectiveness of workplace interventions to increase physical activity and decrease sedentary behaviour in adults: protocol for a systematic review

BACKGROUND: A physically active lifestyle plays a preventative role in the development of various chronic diseases and mental health conditions. Unfortunately, few adults achieve the minimum amount of physical activity and spend excessive time sitting. Developing targeted interventions to increase active living among adults is an important endeavour for public health. One plausible context to reach adults is the workplace. This systematic review aims to review the effectiveness of workplace interventions on increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behaviour in the workplace. METHODS: An advisory group of practitioners will work in collaboration with the research team to inform the systematic review and knowledge mobilization. Fifteen electronic databases will be searched to identify studies examining the effectiveness of workplace interventions on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. All experimental designs and observational studies (non-experimental intervention studies) meeting the study criteria will be included. Studies examining generally healthy, employed, adult participants will be included for the review. Interventions will focus on increasing physical activity and/or decreasing sedentary behaviour from the individual to policy level. The primary outcome variables will be reported or observed physical activity and/or sedentary behaviour in the workplace. Secondary outcomes will include variables ranging from return on investment to quality of life. Study quality will be assessed for risk of bias following the protocol identified in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and supplemented by the guidelines developed by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care group, using RevMan. The quality of the evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Meta-analyses, forest plots, and harvest plots will be used where appropriate to assess the direction, size, and consistency of the intervention effect across the studies using similar intervention strategies. Follow-up knowledge mobilization activities and products will be developed to support the use of this knowledge in practice. DISCUSSION: This protocol paper describes a systematic review assessing the effectiveness of various types of workplace interventions on increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary behaviour at work. Collaborating with an advisory group of potential knowledge users throughout the process postulates a greater use and reach of the information gained from this systematic review by knowledge users. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42015019398 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13643-015-0166-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.