Manager support is crucial for further movement

The new study in The University of Gymnastics and Sports investigated the relationships between office workers' movement patterns and symptoms of depression, anxiety, burnout, mental health and stress.

Movement patterns mean how people distribute sleeping, sitting, and physical activity over a 24-hour period.

“Previous research has often focused on one behavior at a time. But we need to understand how the combination of sleep, sedentary activity and physical activity affects our mental health.” Lisa Marie Larish At the University of Gymnastics and Sports.

“We saw that moderate to intense physical activity was associated with mental health, even if participants were also inactive,” she adds.

Over the course of six months, more than 260 office workers at two companies participated in the study.

One group received different forms of support to promote physical activity. Another group received support to reduce sedentary behavior.

Support consisted of individual counseling by health coaches, based on cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational talking (MI), where each staff member was helped to identify barriers to starting coaching and supported in changing behaviours.

But they also tasked their managers and other staff, called group leaders, with supporting behavioral changes.

These supportive people have come to play a crucial role in the well-being of employees.

“Physical activity or sedentary time has not changed much. On the other hand, we have seen that the mental health of employees has improved,” says the supervisor and psychologist. Victoria Bloomone of the official spokespersons for the thesis.

The reason why physical activity does not increase may depend on several things.

A possible explanation is that it is a slow process and that this was measured very early in the process.

“More studies need to be done to find out, but in any case it became clear that the manager is very important, and that those who did not receive support felt that it was more difficult to achieve behavior change and strengthen their mental health. – Being,” says Victoria Bloom.

Employees themselves mentioned that manager support was important so that they could benefit from support. The design of the ergonomics itself also had an impact.

“For example, if there are no permanent offices and flexible working hours, it will not be easy to make the necessary changes.”

In her work as a psychotherapist, Victoria Bloom often sees that if the individual she has worked with returns to an unsupportive environment, all the work done fails.

So what can managers do?

“I remember that they believe that physical exercise and not sitting for long periods of time is important. Facilitate the changed behavior, for example, by encouraging when an employee returns from lunch training,” says Victoria Bloom, “as well as acting as role models by standing in Meetings, initiating 'walk and talk', going out to lunch training and trying to get staff to go for a walk.”