Purpose: Being outdoors has potential to reduce stress and outdoor office work (OOW) may be an innovative way to decrease workplace stress and offices’ sedentary behaviour. This study aims to assess stress among office workers that are working in their normal indoor office and then starts practicing OOW. Additionally, study participants identified facilitators and barriers for doing OOW.
Methods: In a feasibility study conducted in October 2022, nine office workers were instructed to do usual indoors work during the first week and then work outdoors for at least 30 minutes per day during the second week. They wore a Heart Rate Variability (HRV) monitor called FirstBeat BG3 (HRV-FB) for two weeks while at work to assess objective stress. Subjective stress was assessed by sending short daily surveys throughout the 2 weeks of the intervention, using a Likert scale of 1 to 10 from “not stressed at all” to “extremely stressed”. Also, they were instructed to use the app “Stanford Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool” to take photos of facilitators or barriers to practicing OOW.
Self-reported stress data was analysed using paired sample t-test in SPSS 28, whereas analysis of HRV time and frequency parameters are currently being undertaken. The photos were categorised into themes.
Results: Preliminary findings show that daily self-reported stress decreased on group level when comparing week 1 to week 2 when OOW was performed.
Categories from picture analysis included themes related to “convenience”, “comfort”, equipment/facilities”, “urban” and “weather” in identified barriers. Out of 76 pictures almost all those themed “nature”, both indoor and outdoor, were marked as positive experiences.
Conclusion: Reduction in self-reported stress from week 1 to week 2 suggests OOW could potentially be a useful method to reduce work-related stress. Furthermore, by walking outdoor, the office workers increase their physical activity as compared to being sedentary indoors, which adds another health aspect to OOW.
Picture analysis suggests, to ensure a healthier milieu for office workers, conditions conducive to OOW such as outdoor work facilities in tandem with green spaces in offices' vicinity may need to be facilitated by employers.
2023.
The International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA)