Background: Covid-19 affects health behaviors in terms of less physical activity and increased sedentary behavior of office employees, which is a cause of non-communicable diseases.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of a motivational enhancement program in work exercise movement (MEP in WEM) based on the Capability Opportunity Motivation Behavior (COM-B) model.

Materials and Methods: The cluster randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were designed to collect data and test the program’s effectiveness. Fifty-eight officers, divided into two groups, with 28 officers in the experimental group and 30 officers in the control group, were included in this study. This was calculated by statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences with an effect size of 0.80, p-value 0.05. The data were collected from the Likert rating scale with a Cronbach’s reliability score of 0.776 to 0.911. The MEP ran for 11 weeks with 12 intervention activities between April and July 2021. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were used for data analyses.

Results: After participation, employees’ motivation (mean 3.12, SD 0.520) and sedentary behavior (mean 2.65, SD 0.691) were at a high level, and the MEP in WEM was significantly effective in enhancing motivation. Additionally, the experimental group had the higher motivation and less sedentary behavior than the control group before participating in the intervention at a significance level of 0.05.

Conclusion: This ME program should be used to initiate policies in promoting physical activity of office employees.

Keywords: Sedentary behavior; COM-B; Employee; Motivation; Work exercise; Motivational program

DOI: 10.35755/jmedassocthai.2022.11.13694

Received 14 February 2022 | Revised 14 September 2022 | Accepted 4 October 2022