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Table 4 Summary of implications for researchers, practitioners and workplaces

From: Perceptions of the acceptability and feasibility of reducing occupational sitting: review and thematic synthesis

Implications for intervention design and implementation:

 - Approaches to workplace sitting reduction should aim to address the multiple levels of influence on behaviour, including individual, work-related, social and environmental.

 - The importance of workplace culture and social norms as influences on workplace behaviour should be addressed explicitly.

 - Ensure that intervention strategies are tailored to individual team and organisational needs. This may require starting with small changes to encourage cultural shifts in sitting less and moving more (e.g. implementing a ‘standing agenda item’ in meetings to encourage standing).

 - Emphasise the importance of support and leadership across all organisational levels (particularly senior management level) for intervention messaging and strategies. This may require recruiting workplace champions at multiple levels to promote the program and encourage their co-workers.

 - Plan for, and address the commonly identified barriers and facilitators to particular elements of sitting reduction approaches (e.g. activity-permissive workstations). In doing so, include ongoing assessment to identify additional barriers as they arise.

Implications for future research directions:

 - Assess the feasibility and acceptability of reducing workplace sitting time across a wider variety of cultures, and compare and contrast this to the current evidence base.

 - Prioritise research assessing barriers/facilitators to reducing workplace sitting in non-desk based workplaces, including the feasibility of a broader range of strategies (i.e. beyond sit-stand workstations). Research within countries where workplace sitting research is more prolific (e.g. Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom) should be especially prioritised towards this research.

 - Conduct qualitative research at multiple stages of intervention delivery, including with a longer-term follow-up to determine if barriers and facilitators to reducing workplace sitting change over time.

 - Incorporate perspectives from managers and other decision-making stakeholders when assessing the feasibility and acceptability of workplace sitting reduction approaches.

 - Assess the feasibility and acceptability of participatory, workplace-led interventions to reduce workplace sitting.