Journal Article

The effectiveness of workplace health promotion interventions on physical and mental health outcomes – a systematic review of reviews

van Oostrom, Sandra Helena, Proper, Karin Ingeborg

2019

Overview

Objective This systematic review aimed to provide an overview of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions at the workplace on physical and mental health outcomes related to chronic diseases. Methods A search for reviews published between 2009 and 2018 was performed in electronic databases. References of the included reviews were checked for additional reviews. Workplace health promotion interventions were included if they studied metabolic risk factors as important predictors of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or if they studied mental or musculoskeletal health outcomes. Review quality was assessed using the AMSTAR checklist. Results Of the 23 reviews included, 9 were of high quality. For weight-related outcomes, there was strong evidence for favorable effects of workplace interventions, especially for interventions targeting physical activity and/or diet. For the remaining metabolic risk factors, there was no evidence for a positive effect of workplace health promotion interventions due to the absence of high quality reviews and mixed conclusions between the reviews. There was also strong evidence for a positive, small effect on the prevention of mental health disorders of workplace psychological interventions, especially those that use e- health and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. Furthermore, strong evidence was found for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders through workplace interventions, especially resistance exercise training. Conclusions This review found evidence for the effectiveness of workplace interventions on the prevention of weight-related outcomes as well as mental health and musculoskeletal disorders. Future research is however needed on the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of an intervention.

• Publisher: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health,Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health,Nordic Association of Occupational Safety and Health (NOROSH)
• Subject: Behavior / Cardiovascular disease / Cardiovascular diseases / Chronic illnesses / Clinical outcomes / Cognitive ability / Cognitive behavioral therapy / Cognitive-behavioral factors / cvd / Diabetes / Diabetes mellitus / Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent) / Diet / Diet, Healthy / Disease / Disease prevention / Disorders / Effectiveness / Exercise / Health behavior / Health care / Health education / Health promotion / Health Promotion - organization & administration / Health status / Humans / Industrialized nations / Intervention / lifestyle intervention / Lifestyles / Mental disorders / Mental health / Mental health promotion / Mental health services / meta-review / Metabolism / Musculoskeletal diseases / musculoskeletal disorder / Occupational Diseases - prevention & control / Occupational health / Physical activity / Physical fitness / physical health / Physical training / Population / Prevention / Prevention programs / Preventive medicine / Psychotherapy / Quality / Quality assessment / Resistance / Review / Review Literature as Topic / Risk analysis / Risk factors / Systematic review / Systematic Reviews as Topic / Type 2 diabetes mellitus / Weight / Work site programmes / Workplace / workplace health promotion / workplace health promotion intervention / workplace intervention / Workplaces / worksite health promotion