Physical activity (PA) has a considerable focus with respect to health benefits in the literature 12. Several epidemiological studies highlight the age-related decline of PA 345, with the greatest declines often occurring in late adolescence and young adulthood 6. During this transition period many young people enter the workforce for the first time and their dailyenergy expenditure becomes a combination of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and occupational physical activity (OPA). LTPA is known to be associated with positive health benefits 12, however the role of OPA is less clear 7. Not surprising is that those with low fitness levels are most at risk for negative changes to their health when entering the workforce and this is well documented in men 8910.

The decline in PA can be attributed to the changing patterns of OPA, which are influenced by time and scheduling restraints from other commitments outside of employment 11 and the fact that health habits are likely still developing in this age group. Despite the importance of OPA during late adolescence and young adulthood, there is an absence of studies that have focussed on this role and the potential influence of different occupations on total daily energy expenditure during this transitional period 12.

Currently, there are over one million employees in the food and beverage industry (https://www.restaurantscanada.org/about-us/), with wait staff or servers accounting for the largest percentage, at nearly 20%. The industry is also the largest employer for young adults in Canada providing one in five jobs 13. This employment presents an opportunity to observe whether young people involved in OPA meet daily PA recommendations.

Over the past decade translations of PA guidelines have emerged, and these changes encompass total daily activity recommendations. The newest Canadian Physical Activity guidelines (http://csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/CSEP_PAGuidelines_0-65plus_en.pdf) recommend that those aged 18-64 years old accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity (MVPA) per week, in bouts of 10 minutes or more. The older guidelines 14 include metabolic equivalents (i.e., a single MET value is the energy cost that is equal to the amount of oxygen consumption required at rest) for each intensity category 1215. The CPAG recommended that all Canadians accumulate 60 minutes of light intensity PA and (males = 1.6-3.9 METS; females = 1.2-2.7 METS), 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity PA (males = 4.0-5.9 METS; females = 2.8-4.3 METS), or 20-30 minutes of vigorous intensity PA (males = 6.0+ METS; females = 4.4+ METS) most, but preferably all days of the week 316. Other approaches that have become popular from a health promotion strategy include counting steps per day, which are measured with wearable devices, such as pedometers and accelerometers. We recognize that reaching 10,000 steps/day has been a goal perpetuated by the lay press and that there is limited information on how many daily steps are needed for health 17. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA, walking about 7,000 to 8,000 steps per day will meet the CPAG 18. In terms of walking pace, 100 steps per minute is equal to a moderate intensity level 19, which maybe similar to a serving shift at a very busy restaurant.

Occupational indexes of PA classify restaurant service as an ‘exceptionally active’ or ‘vigorous’ occupation 121520. The origins of these classifications are based on the subjective experience (self-report questionnaire) of workload 20, or the MET; estimated energy cost of the workload 1215. MET descriptions range from two METs, to describe ‘exceptionally active’ occupations 15, to seven-plus METs, to describe ‘vigorous’ occupations 12. In 2011 the Compendium of Physical Activities 21, was updated from the 1993 and 2000 versions with additional occupational descriptions that were both estimated and had MET values supported from the published literature (downloaded from https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/occupation). No category included food serving, however there was a column devoted to walking on the job below 2.5 mph and carrying light objects less than 25 pounds with an assigned MET value of 3.5. This is likely the closest occupational category to food serving as it is similar to the walking pace of a server who would be carrying and removing plates and trays from a table in a timely manner.

Convenience sampling was employed to recruit healthy servers (N=10; Male 80%) ranging in age from 18-30 years. Field recruitment occurred via personal communication with management from two full-service restaurants and, following managerial consent, communication with restaurant service staff occurred. Participant selection was based on the degree of positive response and exclusion criteria which included pregnancy (n=1) and smoking, (n=2), as these factors significantly influence RMR 22. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant (n = 7, 85% M).

In this study young adult restaurant severs’ PA over one week was comprised totally of OPA. This finding emphasizes the importance of addressing OPA as an essential component in PA assessment, particularly in this occupation. However, it also introduces the need for identification of other potential sources of energy expenditure in this population (e.g., commuting to and from work or college) so as to provide a more comprehensive analysis 34. Further analysis of PA patterns showed that energy expenditure in this group was substantially higher on working versus non-working days, and hourly energy expenditure was considerably higher for working versus non-working periods. Additionally, daily stepcounts showed substantially higher values on working versus non-working days. These observations collectively provide evidence that individuals employed in this occupation experience considerably higher levels of PA at work than during other daily activities. From an epidemiological perspective, the analyses of these patterns are most useful when compared to age- and sex-specific normative values. Our results indicate that, while these servers achieved relatively normal PA levels during working days, they were substantially below normal levels on non-working days. These PA patterns may provide important information on how intervention strategies should be directed in this working age group. It would seem most appropriate to target non-working days since the servers had their lowest levels of energy expenditure then.

Based on the OPA classifications, there are two opposing interpretations. For the ‘exceptionally active’ classification, this occupation meets the standard of 2.0-2.1 METs, however, based on the ‘vigorous’ classification, it does not meet the standard of 7+ METs 121520. The former interpretation supports the inclusion of restaurant serving in the highest OPA category, while the latter challenges this. This inconsistency is likely due to differences between the classification systems. The ‘exceptionally active’ system may be based on accumulated energy expenditure above resting values, as opposed to the hourly energy expenditure above resting values, for which the ‘vigorous’ system is based on. As periods of working typically last longer than one hour, the former approach may be more appropriate for the classification of OPA. By using this approach, the total volume of PA (i.e. net energy costs), incorporating both duration and intensity, could provide a more appropriate assessment of true OPA levels. Based on the results of this study, it would seem that the ‘vigorous’ system of classification may be misguided in its approach to occupational energy expenditure.

Comparisons to healthy PA recommendations further supported earlier interpretations regarding PA patterns. Based on CPAG 14, restaurant servers achieved the recommended PA levels for light intensity activity (i.e. 60 minutes) on both working and non-working days; however, this group did not achieve the recommended PA levels for moderate (i.e. 30-60 minutes) or vigorous intensity activities (20-30 minutes). In terms of steps/day servers generally exceeded 10,000 on working days but were noticeably unsuccessful at doing so during non-working days. These findings suggest that this group is achieving health benefits from the PA levels of their occupation alone.

Overall, young adult restaurant servers achieve important health benefits from their PA levels, but primarily from OPA. This is of concern given that foodservice employees are typically transient and temporary, often leaving the industry within a five-year period 13. The notable absence of LTPA is likely to persist following departure from this industry, creating a critical decline in PA that is potentially similar to that normally seen in late adolescence and young adulthood. Strategies aimed at preventing this trend should be appropriately directed at this occupational population.

A strength of this study was the measurement of RMR however, the nature of the protocol required an early morning arrival at the Human Performance Lab. This was an immediate flag for potential participants as most stated they were not early risers due to working late night shifts and therefore they would need to take the previous day off work for this early start. This time constraint limited our recruitment success and therefore our low response rate may reflect some of the similarities associated with investigating rotating shift work. Additionally, the use of a single restaurant establishment in a pilot study such as this would have been preferred, to ensure that: server responsibility, typical clientele volume and the restaurant floor square-footage were similar across participants shifts. In future studies the addition of several restaurants would be important as it would provide the opportunity to reduce isolated or atypical observations, thereby increasing external validity and generalizability. The study was conducted over a university semester and therefore a larger recruitment timeframe may have resulted in an increased participant rate. Also, the time of year that the study was conducted may have influenced the results as the winter may be less busy than serving in the summer months. Another limitation involved a failed battery on one AMP 311 which interrupted the consecutive seven-day period data. However, as the weeks of collection did not differ in typical work and LTPA levels, and data for each day of the week (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, etc.) were still obtained, we believe the results were not adversely affected. Apart from this the AMP 311 performed well and participant burden was minimal.

Surveillance research on PA patterns is critical for providing direction to prevention and intervention strategies, and for identifying determinants and correlates of PA for specific populations 33. This study is to the best of our knowledge the first to provide PA surveillance data for a population of young adult restaurant servers. The results show that, while this group is successful at meeting and exceeding their age- and sex-specific norms and PA recommendations during working days, this is not typically the case on non-working days. During periods of full-time employment restaurant servers derive health benefits from their PA levels from work alone. However, if and when this group ceases employment in the industry, LTPA would be become the major contribution to their daily energy expenditure. Our participants’ LTPA was non-existent and this may have been influenced particularly by the cold winter weather during this period of data collection. A future mixed method study with a larger sample, at different times of the year and in different cities, is needed to confirm our results.

The age-related decline in PA is an ongoing health challenge in this younger generation. The impact of the foodservice industry on this critical period of late adolescence and young adulthood is far-reaching, and therefore merits much greater exploration. Ideally, research in this specific population should progress to establishing patterns and correlates of PA, so as to improve PA messaging specific to this age group and occupation, which may include obtaining PA on their nonworking days.