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Trial findings are out for BeUpstanding! (hint – it works!)

BeUpstanding Stories

The main findings of the BeUpstanding trial have now been published! You can read the scientific paper here, see a summary of the findings in the video, or read more about it below. Evaluating BeUpstanding in a world-first implementation trial The evidence-based BeUpstanding program has been iteratively developed and tested across multiple phases in collaboration with end users and key policy and practice stakeholder. A key phase of this process was the national implementation trial of the program. From June 2019 to September 2021, we recruited desk-based teams from across Australia into trial, which was funded through the NMMRC Partnership Project grant scheme, and supported by our partners: Safe Work Australia, Comcare, Queensland Office of Industrial Relations, The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), and Healthier Workplace Western Australia. For teams, the main feature of taking part in the trial (as distinct from using the program independently) was committing to the evaluation steps and receipt of expert health coaching support to deliver the program via email and phone calls. Trial teams were also followed up at 1-year after running the program. In the trial, we were interested in questions such as: What is the uptake of the program among workplaces and staff?…

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Educate to Elevate: The Theory Behind BeUpstanding Weeks 2 and 5

BeUpstanding Stories

Feeling foggy? You’re not alone. When we sit for too long, our blood flow and metabolism slow down. This means less oxygen is supplied to our brain and we can feel fatigued and sluggish. So why not jump up and start feeling more focused and less tired? That’s exactly what the BeUpstanding intervention is all about, especially during weeks 2 and 5, where the focus is on education and empowerment. These crucial weeks centre around the risks of prolonged sitting and the benefits of standing and moving more. But this isn’t just about throwing facts at you—it’s about strategically targeting the barriers and facilitators of behaviour change, as recommended by the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW). Let’s break down how this messaging works through the lens of the Capacity, Opportunity. Motivation (COM-B) model and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). These frameworks have been explored in more detail on our previous blog post. Capability Understanding the risks associated with sitting too much and the benefits of being more active is one of the biggest barriers for people to sit less and stand more. Weeks 2 and 5 of the BeUpstanding intervention address this by enhancing psychological capability, with a focus on the…

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How Does BeUpstanding Help Workers with their Lower Back Pain?

BeUpstanding Stories

Do you often find your back aching after a long day at work? If so, you’re not alone. Desk workers spend hours sitting every day at work, which makes back pain a common and often overlooked issue. What may start out as mild discomfort in the lower back can quickly worsen if not addressed, potentially impacting your work performance and overall well-being. In this article, we’ll explore how the BeUpstanding program can help prevent and alleviate discomfort in the lower back, whilst simultaneously providing a range of more general benefits, allowing you to stay healthier and feel more comfortable at work. The Costs of Back Pain Back pain is a common and costly problem for Australians. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), approximately 4 million (16%), or 1 in 6 Australians live with chronic back problems. Back pain alone costs the Australian healthcare system $4.8 billion annually and is the number 1 reason for lost work productivity and early retirement in the workforce. Back pain not only poses a great economic burden, but a major health burden as well. For example, it can lead to the need for health treatments such as physiotherapy. It can also…

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What strategies work to sit less and move more?

BeUpstanding Stories

What do you do to sit less and move more? Do you fill up your water bottle regularly? Take a stretching break? Have lunch away from your computer? As part of the BeUpstanding program, staff are asked to indicate the extent to which they took part in a range of 10 sit less strategies and 11 move more strategies in the past month, with response options ranging from never to nearly always/always. Staff could also respond not applicable, with the list of 21 strategies informed by our previous research. Dr Sam Stephens from the BeUpstanding team recently presented on some of the findings from this strategy data and how it related to behaviour change at the 3rd Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity (ASPA) Conference in Wellington, New Zealand. She was able to show that BeUpstanding strategies genuinely do help staff to sit less and move more. What was found to be of particular benefit was: doing a wide range of strategies performing strategies regularly, and choosing highly effective strategies, with some strategies really punching above their weight! In her presentation, Dr Stephens showcased the popularity of each strategy against its effectiveness at helping staff to sit less and move more.…

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What did champions like about the BeUpstanding program?

BeUpstanding Stories

Upon completing the 8-week implementation phase of BeUpstanding, champions are asked to fill out a program completion survey via the BeUpstanding toolkit. The survey asks various questions about what strategies they did as a team, facilitators and barriers to implementing the strategies, as well as their experience as a champion in delivering the program. As part of our evaluation of BeUpstanding, we are looking at what worked well in the program and what aspects of the program workplace champions liked. This articles summarises champion responses to the question “What did you like about the BeUpstanding Program?” The easy to follow and simple structure of the program, along with the resources and information provided in the toolkit were key aspects of the program champions enjoyed, as highlighted by the following champion responses: “Ease of implementation, no cost, good resources. Ability to implement from home and in our purpose-designed office space.” “Easy to follow, well structured. Posters were great and the toolkit was well thought out and put together.” “Easy to implement and tailor to suit the work environment & people’s abilities.” “Resources that were engaging and easy to access and use” “Clear, structured weekly guide about what to do.” Another feature…

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How do BeUpstanding teams choose their top 3 strategies to stand up, sit less and move more?

BeUpstanding Stories

One of the key components of the BeUpstanding program is to hold a staff consultation workshop with all team members. The aim of the workshop is to provide information about the program to staff, give them the opportunity to discuss potential ways in which they can stand up, sit less, and move more at work, and the collectively select three top strategies to implement as a team during the 8-week program and beyond. Ideally the workshop is held in-person, however, we know that COVID and other factors have affected how and where people work.  As a result, an in-person staff workshop was not always possible for the teams taking part in our national trial of BeUpstanding and teams conducted this consultation and gained staff input in various ways. As part of our research, we are interested in finding out how staff were engaged in decision making around potential BeUpstanding strategies. This data was obtained via the program completion survey that workplace BeUpstanding champions completed upon finishing the 8-week implementation phase of the program. In the survey, champions were asked how they gained input from staff on how they wanted to BeUpstanding (in addition to or instead of the staff workshop),…

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Champion Insights – Barriers to engaging management and staff in BeUpstanding

BeUpstanding Stories

Implementing a well-being program in a workplace can come with some challenges, one of which can be engaging staff and/or management in the program. As part of the national trial of BeUpstanding we are interested in learning what some of the barriers were in relation to engaging staff and management in the BeUpstanding program, a workplace champion led program aimed at supporting staff to sit less and move more in the workplace. As part of the program completion survey that BeUpstanding Champions complete upon finishing the 8-week implementation phase of the BeUpstanding program, they are asked the following question: “Tell us about any barriers to engaging management or staff in the BeUpstanding program that you have noticed”. The changes associated with working from home due to COVID-19, namely the lack of visibility and the lack of equipment, were identified as common barriers. It’s hard to get everyone on board.  Working from home made it more challenging – less visibility. Some staff were working from home during the program where they didn’t have sit to stand desks and fellow workers to encourage more movement. A lack of time/being too busy, and only having support from some levels of management, were also…

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How our early adopters helped to shape BeUpstanding

BeUpstanding Stories

The BeUpstanding program is based on over a decade of evidence into what works to help support desk-based workers sit less and move more. The foundation for the program was the Stand Up Victoria study, a randomised controlled trial where the research team delivered the intervention components and ran the evaluation. The initial translation of this intervention into an online program that uses a “train-the-champion” approach to guide workplace champions to deliver and evaluate the program themselves has been previously described, showing that it was effective and acceptable. In the latest paper from the BeUpstanding team we report on Phase 3 of the translation process – our early adopters of the program. What were we evaluating in Phase 3? Phase 3 ran from when we first went “live” with the program on September 1st, 2017 until the start of the national implementation trial in mid June 2019. The purpose of this phase was to test the sign-up process and the new platform that we had developed to be able to deliver and evaluate the program. We also wanted to evaluate the extent to which the program and processes were “fit-for-purpose” for our national implementation trial. To test this, we did…

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How supportive are Australian workplaces for sitting less and moving more?

BeUpstanding Stories

The BeUpstanding program is about supporting desk-based workers to sit less and move more. However, sitting and moving behaviour at work is influenced by a lot of different things besides individual preferences, including job roles and tasks, the social environment (including whether other people are regularly up and about), policies (such as flexible work hours), and the physical environment (such as access to safe and well-lit stairs). To be able to design effective strategies to encourage desk-based workers to ‘sit less and move more’, there is the need to not only understand what factors influence sitting and activity time at work, but also their availability within workplaces. For example, it is not much use designing an intervention around centralising printers if nearly all workplaces have already done that, or have gone paperless. What did we do? As part of the BeUpstanding program, we ask workplace champions to complete an audit of their workplace. The audit asks about the presence (or not) of a range of factors to support sitting less and moving more. We recently published an article reporting on the audit findings from 291 champions (representing 230 organisations) who had completed the workplace audit.  We looked at the prevalence…

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What our international teams are aiming to achieve with BeUpstanding

BeUpstanding Stories

Although BeUpstanding was initially designed to target Australian based workplaces, the program is available globally. To date, we have had over 160 teams from 35 countries outside of Australia sign up to the program. Most of the teams are from the United Kingdom and the United States, however, we also have teams from the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Switzerland taking part in our program. As part of the sign-up process, users are asked what they are aiming to achieve from the program. In previous blog articles (Part 1 & Part 2), we have examined what our Australian teams responded to this question. In this article, Bachelor of Health Sciences placement student Rou Jing Tham dives into the data from our international organisations. Data used and key findings: When users sign up to the BeUpstanding program, one of the questions that they were asked is ‘What are you hoping to achieve by your work team taking part in BeUpstanding?’ We explored the responses that we have received so far from our international teams and identified four main reasons: (1) to improve the working atmosphere; (2) to improve health and wellbeing; (3) to increase awareness; and, (4) to change the working environment.  Create…

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