Adherence to physical activity in a workplace setting – A qualitative interview study

Purpose: Employees at a Danish production company experienced little adherence to company-initiated workplace physical activity (WPA). The objective of this study was to analyse factors explaining non-adherence to WPA from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Trans Theoretical Model (TTM). The TPB explains the criteria for intent towards certain behaviour and the TTM explains behaviour from stages of change and cognitive and motivational considerations. Method: The study was done at a Danish production company that manufactures plastic bags. Data was collected using individual semi-structured interviews with 6 male employees with a mean age of 46 years (range 32–64). Respondents were recruited using purposive sampling, aimed at non-adhering employees. The interview guide was constructed based on the TPB and TTM. The interviews lasted between 30 and 50 minutes. Thematic analysis was done by analyst triangulation. Results: The majority of respondents had a low sense of control over factors influencing their intent such as time of day, distance to activity, work planning and low level of perceived behavioural control and half the respondents reported that they felt able to overcome these factors but lacked an incentive. Disadvantages, such as perceived low level of physical ability, clearly outweighed advantages: processes of change were dominated by cognitive processes and only one respondent exhibited an adequate level of self-efficacy needed to take active steps towards changing behaviour. Conclusions: Future WPA interventions should consider participants’ control over factors influencing the intervention and be sure that the advantages of participating outweigh the disadvantages.