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. 2024 Jul 30;21(8):1003.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph21081003.

Workplace Health Promotion in Italian University Employees: Effects on Body Composition and Mediterranean Diet Adherence

Alessia Moroni  1   2 , Margherita Micheletti Cremasco  1   2 , Giorgio Gilli  2   3 , Raffaella Degan  2
Affiliations

Workplace Health Promotion in Italian University Employees: Effects on Body Composition and Mediterranean Diet Adherence

Alessia Moroni et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

As Workplace Health Promotion is spreading among several working environments, the university context seems to be one of the best to apply primary prevention activities. Working in this direction, the University of Torino led the Wellness@Work for UniTo Project (W@W), with the aim of promoting employees' health. Internal university professionals assessed body composition and adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD), giving on-target advice for improving lifestyle. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the W@W Project after a 4-month intervention period. This project was addressed to university employees, who could participate on a voluntary basis. Researchers assessed (T1) socio-demographic information and collected anthropometric variables. Body composition was evaluated through Classic and Specific Bioelectrical impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA). Adherence to the MD was assessed through the Medi-Lite questionnaire. After the assessments, participants were given 5-min counselling from internal professionals. After about 4 months, participants were supposed to undergo same assessments (T2). Overall, 479 workers joined the project, and of those, 246 came back for the T2 assessment. Globally, either anthropometric, body composition, or MD variables improved significantly after 4 months, both for male and female samples, suggesting how an easy-to-apply WHP intervention could help to improve workers' health.

Keywords: Mediterranean diet; anthropometry; body composition; employees; university; workplace health promotion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nutritional intervention flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ponderal condition of the baseline sample (n = 246) in terms of waist circumference divided by gender.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The baseline Medi-Lite score of the sample (n = 246) divided by sex.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A,B) Female sample (n = 165). Classic (A) and specific (B) results of confidence ellipses carried out with paired T2 Hotelling for classic BIVA (A) between T1 and T2 and results of confidence ellipses carried out with paired T2 Hotelling for specific BIVA between T1 and T2.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A,B) Male sample (n = 81). Classic (A) and specific (B) results of confidence ellipses carried out with paired T2 Hotelling for classic BIVA (A) between T1 and T2 and results of confidence ellipses carried out with paired T2 Hotelling for specific BIVA between T1 and T2.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Ponderal condition of the sample (n = 246) in terms of BMI divided by gender at T1 and T2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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