Breaking the habit? Identifying discrete dimensions of sitting automaticity and their responsiveness to a sitting-reduction intervention

Background: Growing evidence suggests that sitting is activated automatically on exposure to associated environments, yet no study has yet sought to identify in what ways sitting may be automatic. Method: This study used data from a 12-month sitting-reduction intervention trial to explore discrete dimensions of sitting automaticity, and how these dimensions may be affected by an intervention. One hundred ninety-four office workers reported sitting automaticity at baseline, and 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months after receiving one of two sitting-reduction intervention variants. Results: Principal component analysis extracted two automaticity components, corresponding to a lack of awareness and a lack of control. Scores on both automaticity scales decreased over time post-intervention, indicating that sitting became more mindful, though lack of awareness scores were consistently higher than lack of control scores. Conclusion: Attempts to break office workers’ sitting habits should seek to enhance conscious awareness of alternatives to sitting and afford office workers a greater sense of control over whether they sit or stand

Monitoring total-body inflammation and damage in joints and entheses: the first follow-up study of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in rheumatoid arthritis

<p><b>Objective</b>: To investigate changes in whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WBMRI) inflammatory and structural lesions in most joints and entheses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with adalimumab.</p> <p><b>Methods</b>: WBMRI was obtained at weeks 0, 6, 16, and 52 in a 52 week follow-up study of 37 RA patients starting treatment with adalimumab. Readability and reliability of WBMRI were investigated for 76 peripheral joints, 23 discovertebral units, the sacroiliac joints, and 33 entheses. Changes in WBMRI joint and entheses counts were investigated.</p> <p><b>Results</b>: The readability of peripheral and axial joints was 82–100%, being less for elbows and small joints of the feet. For entheses, 72–100% were readable, except for entheses at the anterior chest wall, elbow, knee, and plantar fascia. The intrareader agreement was high for bone marrow oedema (BMO), bone erosion (80–100%), and enthesitis (77–100%), and slightly lower for synovitis and soft tissue inflammation (50–100%). All synovitis, BMO, and soft tissue inflammation counts decreased numerically during treatment. The 26-joint synovitis WBMRI count decreased significantly during the first 16 weeks for patients with a good European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response (from median 6 to 4, p < 0.05), but not for patients with a moderate or no EULAR response. There were no overall changes in structural lesions.</p> <p><b>Conclusions</b>: WBMRI allows simultaneous monitoring of most axial and peripheral joints and entheses in RA patients and can visualize a decrease in inflammatory counts during treatment. This first WBMRI follow-up study of patients with RA encourages further investigation of the usefulness of WBMRI in RA.</p