Effectiveness of Workplace-Based Diet and Lifestyle Interventions on Risk Factors in Workers with Metabolic Syndrome: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression

Abstract

Workplace health interventions are essential to improve the health and well-being of workers and promote healthy lifestyle behaviours. We carried out a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of articles measuring the association between workplace dietary interventions and MetS risk. We recovered potentially eligible studies by searching MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science, using the terms “Metabolic syndrome” and “Occupational Health”. A total of 311 references were retrieved and 13 documents were selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Dietary interventions were grouped into six main types: basic education/counselling; specific diet/changes in diet and food intake; behavioural change/coaching; physical exercise; stress management; and internet/social networks. Most programmes included several components. The interventions considered together are beneficial, but the clinical results reflect only a minimal impact on MetS risk. According to the metaregression, the interventions with the greatest impact were those that used coaching techniques and those that promoted physical activity, leading to increased HDL (effect size = 1.58, sig = 0.043; and 2.02, 0.015, respectively) and decreased BMI (effect size = −0.79, sig = −0.009; and −0.77, 0.034, respectively). In contrast, interventions offering information on healthy habits and lifestyle had the contrary effect, leading to increased BMI (effect size = 0.78, sig = 0.006), systolic blood pressure (effect size = 4.85, sig = 0.038) and diastolic blood pressure (effect size = 3.34, sig = 0.001). It is necessary to improve the efficiency of dietary interventions aimed at lowering MetS risk in workers.

The Impact of Body Weight Changes versus Exercise Capacity Changes on Health-Related Factors following a Lifestyle Intervention in Employees with Metabolic Syndrome

“…These analyses implicate that weight loss is a stronger influence for physiological features of MetS but has lesser impact on mental and work-related features when compared to changes in exercise capacity. This suggests that dietary induced weight loss is of stronger impact when addressing cardiovascular risk factors such as waist circumference, blood lipids, or blood glucose concentration, which was reported before [ 17 , 38 ]. In this regard, the Mediterranean Diet, in particular, showed beneficial effects on disease-related interventions with a focus on nutrition, with cardiovascular disease and MetS being the most investigated diseases for Mediterranean Diet [ 39 ].…”

“…In general, both activity and dietary changes should be addressed in patients with MetS, as data suggest that particularly the combination of diet and physical activity reduces disease risk factors [ 17 ]. Exercise in addition to dietary-induced weight loss is also crucial to preserve muscle mass as metabolically important tissue.…”

“…Interventions addressing weight loss or cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) have shown benefits for several cardio-metabolic biomarkers and HrQoL [ 11 , 15 ]. In clinical practice, most programs combine PA promotion and dietary interventions [ 16 , 17 ]. On average, these programs have shown success for certain outcomes, albeit to different extents [ 6 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

“…On average, these programs have shown success for certain outcomes, albeit to different extents [ 6 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. There are some data suggesting that certain health derangements respond stronger to increases in CRF, whereas others respond stronger with losing body weight [ 8 , 17 ]. However, these data are limited and conflicting [ 21 ].…”

The Effects of the Exogenous Melatonin on Shift Work Sleep Disorder in Health Personnel: A Systematic Review

“…According to the assessment performed through the CONSORT criteria, the evaluation of the level of evidence and recommendation of the studies included in this review was to a certain extent lower than that observed in current systematic reviews on occupational health [ 30 , 31 ]. The study of the non-significant time trend in document adequacy contradicted the expected evolution of increased fulfilment in the course of time.…”