Association Between Employment Status and Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior: The Maastricht Study

Objective: To examine the association between employment status and physical activity and sedentarybehavior.Methods:We included 2045 participants from The Maastricht Study, who used a thigh-wornaccelerometer. We compared time spent sedentary, standing, stepping and higher intensity physicalactivity between participants with different employment status (non-employed or low-, intermediate- orhigh-level occupation) with ANOVA.Results: Participantsinlow-level occupationswere less sedentaryand standing and stepping morethan those in other occupational categoriesand nonemployedparticipants.Among the employed, the differenceswere mostly observed on weekdays,whereas the differences in sedentary time and standing between those in low-level occupations andnon-employed participants were evident both on weekdays and weekend days.Conclusions:Those inlow-level occupational category were less sedentary and more active than non-employed and those inother occupational categories, especially on weekdays.</p