Oxenham Alena F, Braune Tanya, van Sluijs Esther, Fairbrother Hannah, Martin Adam, Winpenny Eleanor M
MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge Level 3 Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, CB2 0SL, UK.
Faculty of Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2025 Jan 28;22(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s12966-024-01682-8.
The workplace is an important determinant of health that people are exposed to for the first-time during adolescence or early adulthood. This study investigates how diet, physical activity, and sleep change as people aged 16-30 years transition into work and whether this varies for different individuals and job types.
Multilevel linear regression models assessed changes in fruit and vegetable intake, sleep duration, and physical activity among 3,302 UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) participants aged 16-30 years, who started work for the first time between 2015 and 2023. In line with interrupted time series analysis, models assessed behavioural trends in the period before starting work, the immediate effect of starting work, and changes in behaviour over time after employment. Stratified analyses examined differences by selected individual and job characteristics, adjusted for covariates. All analyses were conducted in R v.4.3.2.
Sleep duration was stable over the years before and after starting work, but starting work was associated with an immediate reduction in sleep duration (β[Formula: see text]-9.74 [95% CI:-17.32 to -2.17 min/night). Physical activity, measured in Metabolic Equivalent Tasks (METs), increased immediately after starting work (β = 113.3, [95% CI: 80.49 to 146.11] MET-min/day), but subsequently decreased over time after starting work (β= -26.7, [95% CI: -40.75 to -12.66] MET-min/day/year). The increase in physical activity was greater among males, among those with no degree and among those starting lower socioeconomic classification jobs. Starting a "work from home" job had an immediate negative effect on physical activity (β= -126.42 [95% CI: -264.45 to 11.61] MET-min/day), whereas those who worked at their employer's premises showed an initial increase (β = 128.81 [95% CI: 89.46 to 168.16] MET-min/day). Starting work had little influence on fruit and vegetable consumption.
This is the first study to examine how diet, physical activity, and sleep in young adults change as they start employment in the UK. Starting work is associated with decreased sleep time and increased physical activity, with differences based on sociodemographic and job characteristics. Future research should consider these potential influences of the work environment when developing interventions to promote healthy behaviour in the workplace.
工作场所是健康的一个重要决定因素，人们在青春期或成年早期首次接触到它。本研究调查了16至30岁的人在进入工作阶段时饮食、身体活动和睡眠是如何变化的，以及这是否因不同个体和工作类型而有所不同。
多层次线性回归模型评估了3302名年龄在16至30岁之间、于2015年至2023年首次开始工作的英国家庭纵向研究（UKHLS）参与者的水果和蔬菜摄入量、睡眠时间和身体活动的变化。根据中断时间序列分析，模型评估了开始工作前的行为趋势、开始工作的即时影响以及就业后随时间的行为变化。分层分析通过选定的个人和工作特征来检验差异，并对协变量进行了调整。所有分析均在R v.4.3.2中进行。
开始工作前后的几年里，睡眠时间保持稳定，但开始工作与睡眠时间立即减少有关（β[公式：见正文] -9.74 [95%置信区间：-17.32至-2.17分钟/晚]）。以代谢当量任务（METs）衡量的身体活动在开始工作后立即增加（β = 113.3，[95%置信区间：8G.49至146.11] MET-分钟/天），但在开始工作后随时间推移而减少（β = -26.7，[95%置信区间：-40.75至-12.66] MET-分钟/天/年）。男性、没有学位的人和开始从事社会经济分类较低工作的人身体活动的增加幅度更大。开始一份“在家工作”的工作对身体活动有即时负面影响（β = -126.42 [95%置信区间：-264.45至11.61] MET-分钟/天），而在雇主场所工作的人则显示出最初的增加（β = 128.81 [95%置信区间：89.46至168.16] MET-分钟/天）。开始工作对水果和蔬菜消费影响不大。
这是第一项研究英国年轻人开始工作时饮食、身体活动和睡眠如何变化的研究。开始工作与睡眠时间减少和身体活动增加有关，且存在基于社会人口统计学和工作特征的差异。未来研究在制定促进工作场所健康行为的干预措施时应考虑工作环境的这些潜在影响。
