IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0088620.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Avner Ben-Ner
  • Darla J Hamann
  • Gabriel Koepp
  • Chimnay U Manohar
  • James Levine

Abstract

We conducted a 12-month-long experiment in a financial services company to study how the availability of treadmill workstations affects employees’ physical activity and work performance. We enlisted sedentary volunteers, half of whom received treadmill workstations during the first two months of the study and the rest in the seventh month of the study. Participants could operate the treadmills at speeds of 0–2 mph and could use a standard chair-desk arrangement at will. (a) Weekly online performance surveys were administered to participants and their supervisors, as well as to all other sedentary employees and their supervisors. Using within-person statistical analyses, we find that overall work performance, quality and quantity of performance, and interactions with coworkers improved as a result of adoption of treadmill workstations. (b) Participants were outfitted with accelerometers at the start of the study. We find that daily total physical activity increased as a result of the adoption of treadmill workstations.

Suggested Citation

  • Avner Ben-Ner & Darla J Hamann & Gabriel Koepp & Chimnay U Manohar & James Levine, 2014. "Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(2), pages 1-11, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0088620
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088620
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088620
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088620&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0088620?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William W. Gould & Jeffrey Pitblado & Brian Poi, 2010. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 4, number ml4.
    2. Emile Tompa, 2002. "The Impact of Health on Productivity: Macro and Microeconomic Evidence and Policy Implications," The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Di (ed.), The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity, volume 2, Centre for the Study of Living Standards;The Institutute for Research on Public Policy.
    3. Gary Charness & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Incentives to Exercise," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 909-931, May.
    4. Darius Lakdawalla & Tomas Philipson & Jay Bhattacharya, 2005. "Welfare-Enhancing Technological Change and the Growth of Obesity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 253-257, May.
    5. David M. Drukker, 2003. "Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(2), pages 168-177, June.
    6. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    7. Baltagi, Badi H. & Wu, Ping X., 1999. "Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions With Ar(1) Disturbances," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 814-823, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhe Wang & Chunhong Liu & Shuai Yang & Lei Li, 2018. "Employee Fitness Programs: Exploring Relationships between Perceived Organizational Support toward Employee Fitness and Organizational Sustainability Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Lanae Joubert & Matthew Kilgas & Alexandrea Riley & Yuba Gautam & Lars Donath & Scott Drum, 2017. "In-Class Cycling to Augment College Student Academic Performance and Reduce Physical Inactivity: Results from an RCT," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-9, November.
    3. Bradley MacDonald & Xanne Janssen & Alison Kirk & Mhairi Patience & Ann-Marie Gibson, 2018. "An Integrative, Systematic Review Exploring the Research, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance of Interventions to Reduce Sedentary Behaviour in Office Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-29, December.
    4. Anıl Onur Mercanoğlu & Kerem Yıldırım Şimşek, 2023. "The Impact of Employee Recreation on Their Respective Productivity," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, September.
    5. Kelly Mackenzie & Elizabeth Such & Paul Norman & Elizabeth Goyder, 2021. "Using Co-Production to Develop “Sit Less at Work” Interventions in a Range of Organisations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-12, July.
    6. Samson O. Ojo & Daniel P. Bailey & Angel M. Chater & David J. Hewson, 2018. "The Impact of Active Workstations on Workplace Productivity and Performance: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cawley, John, 2015. "An economy of scales: A selective review of obesity's economic causes, consequences, and solutions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 244-268.
    2. Nan Yang & Yong Long Lim, 2018. "Temporary Incentives Change Daily Routines: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Singapore’s Subways," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3365-3379, July.
    3. Humphreys, Brad & Ruseski, Jane & Zhou, Li, 2015. "Physical Activity, Present Bias, and Habit Formation: Theory and Evidence from Longitudinal Data," Working Papers 2015-6, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    4. Okui, Ryo, 2009. "Testing serial correlation in fixed effects regression models based on asymptotically unbiased autocorrelation estimators," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 79(9), pages 2897-2909.
    5. Mortimer, Duncan & Harris, Anthony & Wijnands, Jasper S. & Stevenson, Mark, 2021. "Persistence or reversal? The micro-effects of time-varying financial penalties," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 72-86.
    6. Carlin, Paul S. & Kidd, Michael P. & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet A., 2013. "Does legal heritage affect obesity? The channel of motor vehicle dependence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 621-633.
    7. John A. List & Anya Samek & Terri Zhu, 2022. "Incentives to Eat Healthily: Evidence from a Grocery Store Field Experiment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 489-509, April.
    8. Avner Ben-Ner & Darla Flint Paulson & Gabriel Koepp & James Levine, 2012. "The Effects of Walking while Working on Productivity and Health: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 1207, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised May 2012.
    9. D'Adamo, Gaetano & Rovelli, Riccardo, 2015. "Labour Market Institutions and Inflation Differentials in the EU," IZA Discussion Papers 9389, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Belot, Michèle & James, Jonathan & Nolen, Patrick, 2016. "Incentives and children's dietary choices: A field experiment in primary schools," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 213-229.
    11. Vincenzo Atella & Joanna Kopinska, 2011. "Body weight of Italians: the weight of Education," CEIS Research Paper 189, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 23 Mar 2011.
    12. Homonoff, Tatiana & Willage, Barton & Willén, Alexander, 2020. "Rebates as incentives: The effects of a gym membership reimbursement program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Simone Schaner, 2018. "The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 67-100, July.
    14. Biroli, Pietro & Boneva, Teodora & Raja, Akash & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Parental beliefs about returns to child health investments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 33-57.
    15. Kishan P K V, 2017. "Globalization and Inequality- A Pathway Through Education (Revised as on 02.04.18)," IIMA Working Papers WP 2017-09-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    16. Inoue, Atsushi & Solon, Gary, 2006. "A Portmanteau Test For Serially Correlated Errors In Fixed Effects Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 835-851, October.
    17. Jochmans, Koen, 2020. "A Portmanteau Test For Correlation In Short Panels," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(6), pages 1159-1166, December.
    18. Thorsten Grohsjean & Tobias Kretschmer & Nils Stieglitz, 2011. "Performance Feedback, Firm Resources, and Strategic Change," DRUID Working Papers 11-02, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    19. Shin, Jaeun, 2012. "Private health insurance in South Korea: An international comparison," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 76-85.
    20. Zhao, Jihong & Ren, Ling & Lovrich, Nicholas P., 2010. "Budgetary support for police services in U.S. municipalities: Comparing political culture, socioeconomic characteristics and incrementalism as rival explanations for budget share allocation to police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 266-275, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0088620. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.