Exposure to prolonged sedentary behavior on weekdays rather than weekends in white‐collar workers in comparison with blue‐collar workers

OBJECTIVES: Objectively measured sedentary behavior (SB) on weekdays and weekends has been mainly assessed in white‐collar workers, while data in blue‐collar workers are sparse. Therefore, this study presented the difference in accelerometer‐measured SB levels between weekdays and weekends, stratified by white‐ and blue‐collar occupations. METHODS: This study was a sub‐analysis of accelerometer data from 73 workers (31 blue‐collar and 42 white‐collar) at a Japanese manufacturing plant. SB was defined as ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents estimated using an accelerometer, and compared between weekdays and weekends by using mixed models adjusted for confounders. The proportion of workers who sat for ≤8 h/day on weekdays and weekends were compared using McNemar's test. RESULTS: In white‐collar workers, SB time on weekdays was significantly longer than that on weekends (598 vs 479 min/day, P < .001). In blue‐collar workers, there was no significant difference in SB time between weekdays and weekends (462 vs 485 min/day, P = .43). The proportion of workers who achieved the recommended SB levels (≤8 h) was only 4.8% for white‐collar workers on weekdays and 54.8% on weekends (P = .04), while that of blue‐collar workers was 45.2% and 58.1% respectively (P > .99). CONCLUSIONS: White‐collar workers were exposed to significantly longer SB time on weekdays than on weekends, which was not the case in blue‐collar workers. It may be rather challenging for white‐collar workers to limit their SB time to the level recommended by the latest guidelines for better health, especially on weekdays.