Comparison of Interventions to Promote Health in Workers

Comparison of Interventions to Promote Health in Workers: A Cluster Randomized Controled Trial

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01484834

Enrollment

190

Registered

2011-12-02

Start date

2011-08-31

Completion date

2011-11-30

Last updated

2017-08-15

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Health Behavior

Keywords

Physical Activity, Occupational Health, Quality of Life, Health Promotion

Brief summary

The goal of this research was to investigate different intervention strategies in the workplace and their impact on quality of life of workers from companies in the city of Londrina, Parana, Brazil. The interventions were composed by exercise in the workplace and educational interventions.

Detailed description

The workplace has special features about human behaviors. Studies (Shepard 1996, Pratt 2008) has shown that workers participate of this kind of health promotion programs for various reasons: One reason is the convenience of doing something without having to look for it; another reason is group support, many workers who share difficulties due to their working demands can find support in each other, so that they could change health behavior. Furthermore there are patterns of formal and informal communication that can contribute to help more people to become healthier making their environment better. Finally, the norms of a corporate behavior can unite the group of workers seeking same objectives. Additionally the literature has shown that adults increased workload, job insecurity and pressure to perform tasks (Sparks 1997). These facts has been shown that workplace is different from community based interventions and leisure interventions. The outcomes proposed to study are different from other studies since the interventions focus changes in behaviors. Sedentary behavior has shown to have 23% of deaths from major chronic disease (WHO 2002). As the populations rises around the world and with the prolonged life expectancies, the number of people with chronic diseases will raise (WHO 2006). By having positive changes in health behavior the costs of public health can be reduced. Studying different types of interventions and testing its efficacy in different places can help the policy makers to create healthier environments. There are strategies being developed in the workplace, but its efficacy is being challenged. There are some researches that show no evidence to prove the continuity of these interventions and there are evidences proving the opposite, positive changes in clinical outcomes as diabetes, blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol. In addition some measures as BMI, anthropometric, fitness level have shown good association as prediction of development of chronic disease with low cost (Dishman 2004).

Interventions

BEHAVIORALExercise and Education

Exercise were prescribed three times a week with duration of fifteen minutes for three months. Educational Intervention were composed by a quality of life computer software and poster with tips on health behaviors

BEHAVIORALExercise

Exercise were prescribed three times a week with duration of fifteen minutes for three months.

BEHAVIORALEducational Intervention

This company received a quality of life software and poster intervention with tips on health lifestyle. The posters were printed in A3 paper and eight of them were put up per month in different parts of the companies (near water fountains, rest places, cafeterias, near the restrooms and change rooms). The used messages, both by the posters and the software were basedon scientific evidence related to quality of life and health

OTHERControl Company

No intervention was applied for the participants of this group

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 50 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

The inclusion criteria for participation of these study were never participated of and quality of life and health intervention program at work and had an interest in participating in the study. Included workers ≥ 18years who had to work in the office position, sitting at the computer most of the work shift.

Exclusion criteria

temporary workers and freelancers.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Quality of Life	The participants were followed for 3 months	The instrument contains 80 questions, of which 67 were structured in 5 points Lickert Scale. QVS-80 has four domains: Health Domain (Health) Physical activity (PA), occupational environment domain (AO) and perception of QoL (QOL). The health domain is composed of 30 questions, and the thirteen initial questions refer to history of the existence of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemias, bronchitis, allergic rhinitis and cancer; the remaining questions relate to lifestyle and living habits, such as quality of sleep, smoking and consumption of alcohol. The domain of physical activity consists of 15 questions on physical activity. The Domain workplace consists of 11 questions about the physical activity at work and occupational environment. The Domain perception of QoL consists of 24 questions about personal characteristics, and autonomy. The syntax of QVS-80 put the results in a scale of 0 -100 points (the higher the better).

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Physical Activity Level	The participants were followed for 3 months	The level of physical activity was evaluated by the questionnaire of quality of life. (QVS-80). The physical activity domain is composed of 15 questions considering the ammount of physical activity practiced during leisure time. The instrument is structured in 5 points Lickert Scale. The syntax of QVS-80 put the results in a scale of 0 -100 points (the higher the better).
Occupational Environment	The participants were followed for 3 months	The occupational environment was assessed by the quality of life questionnaire. (QVS-80). It considers physical aspects like accessibility and psycologic aspects such as stress. The domain consists of 11 questions about occupational environment. The syntax of QVS-80 put the results in a scale of 0 -100 points (the higher the better).
Changes in Disease Prevalence	The participants were followed for 3 months	the changes in disease prevalence was measured in the same instrument QVS-80. The chronic disease was self-related by the participants.
Pain Perception	The participants were followed for 3 months	Pain perception were evaluated by the diagram of pain proposed by Corlett in 1995. The part of body which had pain were indicated by the participant. The data were analysed as yes or no and reported as Odds ratio.

Countries

Brazil

Participant flow

Recruitment details

Administrative workplace

Participants by arm

Arm	Count
Exercise in the Workplace and Educational Intervention Participants received exercise in the workplace and educational intervention	65
Exercise in the Workplace Participants received exercise only	62
Educational Intervention Participants received educational intervention only	39
Control Company Participants did not receive any intervention	24
Total	190

Withdrawals & dropouts

Period	Reason	FG000	FG001	FG002	FG003
Overall Study	Lost to Follow-up	5	8	1	4

Baseline characteristics

Characteristic	Exercise in the Workplace	Educational Intervention	Exercise in the Workplace and Educational Intervention	Control Company	Total
Age, Categorical <=18 years	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants
Age, Categorical >=65 years	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants	0 Participants
Age, Categorical Between 18 and 65 years	62 Participants	39 Participants	65 Participants	24 Participants	190 Participants
Age, Continuous	23.9 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 5.23	28.6 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 7.57	24.6 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 3.54	27.2 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 7.7	26 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 6
Region of Enrollment Brazil	62 participants	39 participants	65 participants	24 participants	190 participants
Sex: Female, Male Female	33 Participants	15 Participants	44 Participants	5 Participants	97 Participants
Sex: Female, Male Male	29 Participants	24 Participants	21 Participants	19 Participants	93 Participants

Adverse events

Event type	EG000 affected / at risk	EG001 affected / at risk	EG002 affected / at risk	EG003 affected / at risk
deaths Total, all-cause mortality	— / —	— / —	— / —	— / —
other Total, other adverse events	0 / 65	0 / 62	0 / 39	0 / 24
serious Total, serious adverse events	0 / 65	0 / 62	0 / 39	0 / 24

Outcome results

Primary

Quality of Life

The instrument contains 80 questions, of which 67 were structured in 5 points Lickert Scale. QVS-80 has four domains: Health Domain (Health) Physical activity (PA), occupational environment domain (AO) and perception of QoL (QOL). The health domain is composed of 30 questions, and the thirteen initial questions refer to history of the existence of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemias, bronchitis, allergic rhinitis and cancer; the remaining questions relate to lifestyle and living habits, such as quality of sleep, smoking and consumption of alcohol. The domain of physical activity consists of 15 questions on physical activity. The Domain workplace consists of 11 questions about the physical activity at work and occupational environment. The Domain perception of QoL consists of 24 questions about personal characteristics, and autonomy. The syntax of QVS-80 put the results in a scale of 0 -100 points (the higher the better).