Gender Differences in Acceptance of Factors that Make Office Workers Move More Often

Objectives. Sedentariness causes serious problems that can be prevented by more frequent
movement. Understanding how differently factors influence women and men can help
employers plan their strategies more efficiently. The aim is to analyze the impact of gender on
factors that make office workers move more frequently.
Materials and methods. The first anonymous questionnaire was distributed electronically
among the Latvian office workers in 2022, the second one - in 2023. The same questions from
both surveys were combined and analyzed by the SPSS program using frequency and Pearson
Chi-square tests.
Results. A total of 552 respondents were included of which 23.9% (n=132) were men and
76.1 % (n=420) women, with a mean age of 39.6 ± 11.3 years. Statistically significant differences
(p<0.05) between genders regarding factors that could possibly help office workers to increase
daily movements and reduce sedentariness while working on computer were observed. More
women (47.9%) than men (27.3%) totally agreed that it would help them to move more if
their employer provided a specialist to lead physical activity classes. 21.2% of men and 31.4%
of women believed that it would help them move more if the employer provided a physical
activity schedule. More women (7.4%) totally disagreed, while only 1.5% of men didn’t agree
with the statement that a rest corner with standing activities in the workplace would help
them move more often.
Conclusions. Employers should take into consideration gender differences to stimulate
physical activities and reduce sedentariness in office workers. For instance, women can
exercise with a trainer according to the schedule, while men can participate in standing
activities in the rest corner.