Office-based physical activity: mapping a social ecological model approach against COM-B.

The paper proposes a social ecological model of physical activity associated with office-based settings. The model considers opportunities for both incidental and discretionary activities, as well as macro and micro factors on both socio-cultural and physical dimensions. The COM-B framework for characterising behaviour change interventions is used to highlight the underlying mechanisms of behaviour change inherent in the model. The broad framework provided by social ecological models is important for understanding physical activity in office-based settings because of the non-discretionary nature of sedentary behaviour of office-based work. It is important for interventions not to rely on individual motivation for behaviour change alone but to incorporate changes to the broader social ecological and physical context to build capability and create opportunities for more sustainable change.