Enhancing workplace exercise and physical fitness: university workers’ attitudes

Introduction

Increasing workplace exercise (WE) has received a lot of attention over the years in learning and sharing health information because during working hours that employees were confronted with health problems.^1–3 However, physically active workers are more productive than those who are inactive and overweight. Therefore, poor worker health indicates reduced performance and increased expenses of company. This is the key reason why many worldwide employers have begun focusing on addressing aspects of their workers' health and considering numerous health programs or fitness activities.^4–8

In universities of Bangkok, employees often sit at their desks during working hours without engaging in exercise. Therefore, universities are considering a proper workplace fitness program to reduce indirect health-care costs and promote good health. Workplace exercise encourages individual workers to develop healthy behaviors that then leads to lower costs and increased productivity.^9–11 At any age, physical activity is valuable to health. The target of such healthcare inventions is to improve worker fitness and not just simply to reduce the risks. It is evident that a person who is physically fit can perform better at work and withstand workload pressures over-time, and thus be more productive compared to an unfit person.¹² This paradigm shift is noticeable across many organizations as they strive to be completely health focused companies.¹³ This research is useful for universities given the performance impact of physical activity at the workplace and for the promotion of health and wellness among workers. However, understanding the factors on exercise behavior (knowledge, attitude, and exercise practice) related to physical activity among workers is important to establishing an effective WE program. Therefore, the present study aimed to predict the behavioral factors related to physical fitness among university workers and assessed the effectiveness of workplace exercise (WE) in a health promotion program for university workers to improve health and attitudes to work performance.

Methods

Participants

This study was conducted among employees in KMUTT. We announced the research in the university’s public relations brochures, and the details of criteria for participation were included. Participants could be anyone who had worked in KMUTT for at least a year, had no health problems and would be able to join the two-month program. The research guidelines and instructions for applying were also included. There were two stages of recruitment (Figure 1). The first stages of recruitment involved the determination of the exercise behavioral factors. After calculation of the sample size by substituting the numbers into the Yamane formula, there was only a sample size of 88 university workers. To obtain reliable data, the researcher increased the sample size to 93 workers out of a total of 753 purposive sampling with any age and mixed gender to evaluate exercise behaviors. In the second stage, healthy workers who had moderate agreement with exercise attitudes and moderate frequency of exercise practice in exercise behavior were selected for the assessment of health promotion program on physical fitness and work attitudes. Therefore, only 31 out of 93 workers were recruited before verifying the work attitude after finishing the program. In addition, they had not previously participated in any programs in six months.

Figure 1. Study design in the effect of health promotion program on physical fitness and work attitude.

However, the exclusion criteria included having any illness before starting the program. No participant withdrew from the study due to illness.

Results

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the behavioral factors related to physical fitness among university workers and assess the effectiveness of workplace exercise (WE) in a health promotion program construct for university workers and its influence on health-related and work-related attitudes. In the area of occupational health related to WE, this area study occurred due to the need to launch a worker health-promotion used in various locations.^18,19

Therefore, in this regard, the behavior of the outcomes studied after two months of the workplace exercise program were observed, where each employee has the measurement compared in the initial and final moments and then to illustrate and investigate the importance of exercise behavior, physical fitness, and worker attitudes. To understand better why adult individuals do not engage in exercise is important to professionals who develop behavior-changing interventions. Firstly, the present study was the identification of the factors for exercise behavior among university employees by reinforcing and developing the performance of the WE program at universities in Thailand. The results of exercise behavior showed that age and gender had no effect on level of knowledge among university workers at a high level. However, the results of moderate attitude levels and exercise practice agreed with previous studies on theoretical assumptions of the health action process approach.²⁰ In terms of the theory of changing exercise behavior based on the transtheoretical model, the exercise behavior is mentioned above and inspired an interesting study.

The promotion of exercise behavior is a potential solution for physical inactivity problems among university workers. The factors understanding impacts on university workers exercise behavior is crucial for university exercise promoting intervention. We argued that general exercise factors cannot comprehensively clarify exercise behavior of university workers in a specific university context.²¹ Therefore, this study determined the factors of 31 selected university workers with moderate attitude levels and exercise practice after engaging in the program. The current results confirmed and extended earlier studies on exercise factors with the increasing exercise behavior level in terms of knowledge, attitude, and exercise practice. In addition, we also confirmed that the exercise factors in the workplace are enjoyment, perceived health, competence, and available time. In accordance with Dishman et al. who recommended that strong factors of exercise participation are behavioral skills, perception of good health, self-motivation, and leisure time.²² We also established that influence of friends and colleagues are also determinants for the exercise behavior of university workers, as shown in earlier findings where people in both home and work environments demonstrated another robust correlation of exercise behavior.^23,24 Besides that, there were three factors (work pace, company policy, and work burden) that extended the exercise factor in studies in a workplace and in a site-specific manner. The factor of work environment also needs to be considered as an important factor in workplace exercise behavior promoting programs. In addition, this finding is supported by several previous studies, in which individuals who perceived more barriers to the exercise were less likely to engage in this behavior.^25,26 Pender et al. focused on a perceived barrier as an essential mediator of the motivational readiness of individuals to develop healthier behavior.²⁷ In other studies, perceived barriers predicted physical activity behavior.^28,29 In order to promote WE, it is necessary to solve the perceived barriers, which can be defined as predictive. This study also showed the valuable effects of commitment to action planning and self-efficacy. The previous evidence demonstrated the relationship between a plan of action and maintaining self-efficacy on one hand, and exercise behavior on the other.³⁰ In Laffrey, indicating Bandura, it was noted that the perception of self-efficacy influenced the emotional arousal, thoughts, and actions of the individual, and the higher the level perceived efficacy for a behavior, it is more likely that they will accomplish such behavior.³¹ Moreover, in accordance with our study, numerous studies have shown that perceived self-efficacy has been the best predictor variable for actual exercise activity.^32,33 Therefore, strategies for enhancing efficacy in practice through motivational counseling interviews and focus group discussions for strengthening self-efficacy, could lead to more effective health promotion programs for university employees and should be considered in developed interventions.³⁴

Among the outcomes studied in terms of the relationship between exercise behaviors and physical fitness, significant differences are noted between the initial and final evaluations in terms of a resting heart rate (p<0.005) and leg strength (p<0.01). A high level of exercise behavior in terms of knowledge, attitudes and exercise among university workers effected on physical fitness in terms of resting heart rate, vital capacity, sit and reach, hand grip strength and leg strength. However, there was no effect on body mass index, because the factors of diet had also affected their physical fitness. However, the studies that researched the effects of WE on body mass, muscle force and flexibility have found benefits.^35,36 The exercise behavior of university workers were stimulated, and it encouraged them to develop strong muscles, flexibility, and endurance of the circulatory system to adjust the exercise behavior of university workers with the aim of developing a healthy body. In terms of BMI, the fat reduction affected their body mass index after exercise routines and regarding consumption behavior.³⁷ A balanced diet, controlled portions and the amount of food is also an important factor in determining BMI.³⁸ Workers who engaged in the program had a low resting heart rate confirming the effectiveness of the WE program on the performance of the heart system and blood circulation.

Although leg strength improved after the program, the flexibility, strength and endurance of the leg muscles in sit and reach need to develop physically continuous support of a body motion on a continuous basis and causing physiological adaptations tends to increase muscle strength and results in smoother movements.³⁹ In order to increase hand grip strength, the training required an increase in the strength and endurance of the arm muscles, but the development machine exercise focused on gross motor skills and the improvement of arm muscle abilities.⁴⁰ Therefore, the data indicated that exercise behaviors were related to physical fitness as well as the ability to manage their environment, mental states, perception, and influence in determining the abilities of the individuals. The habit of exercise routines in behavioral practice increased their knowledge and attitude to fitness as importance and regarding practice on a daily basis. In addition, the results demonstrated university workers who are in good physical fitness have a high level of exercise behavior.

The study stated that subjective health would mediate the physical exercise and work attitude relationship. The results of the study identified a positive mediation of subjective health to work attitudes. The participants who engaged in physical exercise experience increased their feelings of well-being.⁴¹ The health status of employees directly influenced their on-the-job performance and improved employee well-being, which results in a more productive workforce.¹⁷

In terms of the gap in the relationship between workplace exercise program in physical fitness to the attitudes or university workers in Bangkok, Thailand, this study suggested that some physical activity programs are effective beyond direct health benefits. The design of an intervention benefits from a multidisciplinary team with different perspectives to set of goals. Such work has great potential to make a large impact on the health and well-being of university workers by intervening and making highly beneficial lifestyle changes.

Conclusion

The achieved outcomes indicated that physical exercise levels are positively impacted by fitness and worker’s productivity. The measured results improved job attitudes through enrollment in the exercise program by employees. In addition, this study showed that there is a direct relationship between work attitude and physical fitness after adapting exercise behaviors by WE program. In general, workers who participated in WE interventions had more self-confidence and concentration at work, and the physical activity can reduce stress and depression while under pressure in the workplace. However, the limitation of this research is the data on health problems because workplace exercise increases health of workers and reduces the cost of treating illness. Furthermore, introducing a workplace policy to provide university workers with subsidized gym/recreation memberships or fitness counseling are an effective way to increase and support worker physical activity and to reduce barriers to physical exercise, such as cost.