“I think office environments aren't really conducive to physical activity”: A qualitative interview study with participants of a workplace physical activity programme

Background: There is a wealth of evidence surrounding the positive impacts of exercise on health and wellbeing, however, sedentary behaviour is still prevalent, particularly in the workplace. This has led to the development and popularity of workplace programmes intended to increase activity levels. An example is Step Count Challenge (SCC) available to all workplaces nationwide across Scotland. In SCC, teams of five colleagues attempt to complete as many steps as possible during either a four- or eight-week period in Autumn and Spring. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore SCC participants’ experiences and the impact of participation on exercise behaviours, using the COM-B model.Methods: Previous SCC participants (n=15) took part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews via Microsoft Teams or phone call, with conversation particularly centred around activity behaviours, both during the SCC and beyond the challenge. The interview schedule was structured such that each element of the COM-B model was addressed, and responses were analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive analytic approach to reflexive thematic analysis.Results: Five salient themes (and subthemes) were generated to represent the data, each mapped to an element of the COM-B Model. These overarching themes were: 1) Beliefs about capability impacted by experiences and performance, both personal and those of others, 2) SCC presents the opportunity for a Physical Activity behaviour change, 3) General physical activity barriers, 4) SCC impacting Physical Activity Motivation, and 5) Why do we do it? Conclusions: Participants believed that they benefitted from the SCC, and that their physical activity levels were positively impacted as a result of their participation. This positive impact seemed to be largely affected by the notions of competition and team driving motivation to exercise, and therefore these should be considered when designing future programmes. As well as the positive influence of the Motivational aspects of SCC, Capability and Opportunity were also impactful, but these were also labelled as being prone to uncontrollable barriers to activity. Flexible workplace physical activity programmes like SCC have the potential to be effective at changing behaviours and increasing physical activity levels.