Reducing Obesity among Employees of a Manufacturing Plant

Abstract

Obesity affects individuals physically and emotionally, contributing to direct and indirect employer costs. Targeted obesity interventions through the Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Core Curriculum offered at the worksite could promote healthy lifestyle decisions resulting in weight improvement among overweight and obese employees. A pretest-posttest cohort design was used to evaluate changes in weight and body mass index among 35 Diabetes Prevention Program participants; they achieved statistically significant changes in body weight (p < .001) and body mass index (p < .001). As a process measure, Diabetes Prevention Program session attendance moderately correlated with weight loss (r = .51; p = .002). Many health care professionals, including occupational health nurses, can implement evidence-based worksite obesity interventions to support employee weight loss.

Workplace Interventions to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a Narrative Review

“…Of these, 11 papers describing 10 studies (i.e., one study provided a 2-year follow-up analysis, which was published separately) translated the DPP to the workplace [38–44, 45•, 46, 47•, 48], while 3 studies utilized alternative strategies to prevent T2DM among their employee population [49–51]. Most studies ( n = 11) were offered by US employers; one was offered by a German employer [48] and one was offered by a Finnish employer [51].…”

“…Most studies ( n = 11) were offered by US employers; one was offered by a German employer [48] and one was offered by a Finnish employer [51]. Among these studies were two randomized controlled trials with individual-level randomization [40, 45•], one non-randomized controlled trial [41], one cluster randomized controlled trial [43], three single group time series studies [38, 42, 49], two single-group pre-post studies [44, 47•], one multi-group pre-post study [46], and three longitudinal cohort studies [48, 50, 51]. …”

“…Few studies reported information related to company size [38, 42, 45•, 48], which ranged from 167 employees at one site [42] to 3000 employees across five sites [48]. None of the studies reported information regarding the job classification program participants, although one study mentioned that most of the company’s employees are paid hourly wages [38], another mentioned that company employees include both salaried and hourly workers [45•], and two studies mentioned that the employees perform shift work [42, 44]. …”

“…Three studies used the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Risk Assessment Questionnaire [52] to identify individuals at high risk for T2DM [38, 43, 47•], and two used the risk assessment score to guide additional biomarker evaluation [38, 47•]. In two studies, all employees who were overweight or obese were eligible for participation [44, 46]. Self-measured waist circumference was used by one employer to identify individuals with central obesity (waist circumference was ≥80 cm for women or ≥94 cm for men) and eligibility for biomarker screening [48].…”

“…Among the 10 studies that translated the DPP to the workplace, 6 delivered at least 16 core sessions [38, 41, 43, 44, 45•, 47•]. Two studies shortened the duration of the intervention’s core phase from 16 to 12 weeks [40] and 4 weeks [46].…”