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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Apr 10;19(4):e108.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.6196.

Effect of a Nine-Month Web- and App-Based Workplace Intervention to Promote Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Employees in the Social Welfare and Health Care Sector: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Nina Charlotte Balk-Møller  1 , Sanne Kellebjerg Poulsen  1 , Thomas Meinert Larsen  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effect of a Nine-Month Web- and App-Based Workplace Intervention to Promote Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Employees in the Social Welfare and Health Care Sector: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Nina Charlotte Balk-Møller et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: General health promoting campaigns are often not targeted at the people who need them the most. Web- and app-based tools are a new way to reach, motivate, and help people with poor health status.

Objective: The aim of our study was to test a Web- and mobile app-based tool ("SoSu-life") on employees in the social welfare and health care sector in Denmark.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was carried out as a workplace intervention. The tool was designed to help users make healthy lifestyle changes such as losing weight, exercise more, and quit smoking. A team competition between the participating workplaces took place during the first 16 weeks of the intervention. Twenty nursing homes for elderly people in 6 municipalities in Denmark participated in the study. The employees at the nursing homes were randomized either 1:1 or 2:1 on a municipality level to use the SoSu-life tool or to serve as a control group with no intervention. All participants underwent baseline measurements including body weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol level and they filled in a questionnaire covering various aspects of health. The participants were measured again after 16 and 38 weeks.

Results: A total of 566 (SoSu-life: n=355, control: n=211) participants were included in the study. At 16 weeks there were 369 participants still in the study (SoSu-life: n=227, control: n=142) and 269 participants completed the 38 week intervention (SoSu-life: n=152, control: n=117). At 38 weeks, the SoSu-life group had a larger decrease in body weight (-1.01 kg, P=.03), body fat percentage (-0.8%, P=.03), and waist circumference (-1.8 cm, P=.007) compared with the control group.

Conclusions: The SoSu-life Web- and app-based tool had a modest yet beneficial effect on body weight and body fat percentage in the health care sector staff.

Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02438059; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02438059 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6i6y4p2AS).

Keywords: Internet; eHealth; health promotion; randomized controlled trial; smartphone; weight reduction programs; workplace.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: PenSam Livsforsikringsselskab manages occupational pension schemes for approximately 340,000 wage-earners employed in Danish municipalities and regions, and in private organizations. Arne Astrup is cofounder and coowner of the University of Copenhagen spin-out company Mobile Fitness A/S, Denmark. The University of Copenhagen takes full responsibility for the study design, the data collection, the analysis, the interpretation of data, and the decision to submit the article for publication.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the SoSu-life study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Screenshot of the SoSu-life app menu.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Screenshot of the SoSu-life website.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Flow diagram of the participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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