Effects of occupational health promotion interventions on health-related outcomes among employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Compared to workers of larger companies it is less clear what health promoting interventions might be beneficial for employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to critically appraise trials investigating health promotion programs among small business workers and self-employed individuals, by means of a systematic review.

METHODS

We conducted a search of primary studies using MEDLINE, Web of Science, LIVIVO and the Cochrane library. Our assessment followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and PRISMA.

RESULTS

We identified six trials including 5,854 participants from Asia, North America and Australia. Most were of moderate methodological quality, only one was of low quality. Some of the supervised psycho-educational lifestyle programs focusing on individual behavior changes showed benefits in terms of stress reduction and increased physical activity levels among small enterprise employees.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a huge knowledge gap on evidence-based health promotion interventions for self-employed and for small business workers, especially in Europe.

Salutogenesis intervention improves cardio-cerebrovascular health in at-risk office workers: A quasi-experimental study

OBJECTIVE

Cardio-cerebrovascular disease is the major cause of work-related deaths. Salutogenesis indicates individual differences in health levels occur owing to differences in the sense of coherence (SOC). A salutogenesis-based intervention may promote cardio-cerebrovascular health at work. This study examined the effects of a SOC promotion program based on salutogenesis.

DESIGN

Quasi-experimental study.

SAMPLE

Fifty-six office workers who were above the "low risk" of cardio-cerebrovascular disease from two workplaces were included in the final analysis.

MEASUREMENTS

Data collected pre- and postintervention. To determine the intervention's effectiveness, repeated-measures analysis of variance was used.

INTERVENTION

The intervention group was provided with the SOC promotion program, whereas the control group was provided with educational materials alone for 12 weeks.

RESULTS

Generalized resistance resources (GRRs; knowledge of cardio-cerebrovascular disease prevention, stress-coping strategies, and social support) and SOC significantly improved in the intervention group. The intervention group showed significant improvements in occupational stress, physical activity, dietary behavior, total cholesterol level, fasting glucose level, hemoglobin A1C level, body mass index, waist circumference, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and cardio-cerebrovascular risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Systematic salutogenesis-based SOC promotion programs should be established to enhance the cardio-cerebrovascular health of office workers at-risk of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Trial Registration Number is KCT0007029. The date of registration is February 23, 2022.

Exploring the determinants of health-promoting behaviors among miners: A text mining and meta-analysis

The health-promoting behaviors of miners are of great significance to their physical and mental well-being. With a focus on enhancing their overall health, this study aimed to explore the determinants and influencing mechanisms of health-promoting behaviors in miners. Initially, the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model was utilized to extract topical keywords from literature over the last 23 years and to categorize the determinants based on integrating the health promotion model and the health belief model. Subsequently, a meta-analysis was performed based on 51 related empirical research to explore the mechanisms between determinants and health-promoting behaviors. The results indicated that (1) the factors influencing miners' health-promoting behaviors can be divided into four dimensions: physical environment, psychosocial environment, individual characteristics, and health beliefs. (2) Noise was negatively related to health-promoting behaviors, while protective equipment, health culture, interpersonal relationships, health literacy, health attitudes, and income were positively related to health-promoting behaviors. (3) Protective equipment and health literacy were positively related to perceived threat, whereas interpersonal relationships were positively related to perceived benefits. This study sheds light on the mechanisms influencing miners' health-promoting behaviors and could inform behavioral interventions in occupational health.

A Creative Concept to empower office workers addressing work-related health risks

Among office workers, the sedentary work-related health challenges are mainly associated with the fact that they often sit for up to 10 hr a working day. Members of the Research Group conducted a research program to assist the office workers of an international telecommunication company's affiliate in Budapest to enhance comfort levels in the office work environment. The data collection included a Comfort Survey to reveal employees' sense of comfort related to Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) components and the characteristics of employees' feelings and behavior during working hours. Moreover, a measurement of IEQ components was carried out and focused on air quality, lighting, sound exposure and thermal comfort parameters. Based on the survey's results, a Creative Concept was developed to empower office workers to address work-related health risks, notably sedentary work risks. The Creative Concept consists of five elements: a Comfort Map as an IEQ-related application to select a suitable workplace, redesigning concepts to increase the use of lounges, a newly developed work pad to improve personal hygiene in an office environment, recommendations for creating a health-enabling work environment and a workplace training program to raise health awareness. After validation, our Creative Concept can function as a multi-component workplace health promotion method to offer assistance for a wide variety of offices to create a health-enabling working environment.

Effectiveness of a Mobile Health Management Program With a Challenge Strategy for Improving the Cardiovascular Health of Workers

BACKGROUND

Workers' cardiovascular health can be influenced by individual willingness to practice healthy behaviors. A mobile health management program with a challenge strategy was administered to promote workers' healthy behaviors among small to medium-sized enterprises.

METHODS

A 12-week program consisted of health communication with a challenge strategy was administered to the workers.

RESULTS

The intervention group showed significantly improved scores for cardiovascular disease-related health behavior (Z = -2.44, P = 0.013), the job stress contributing factor of inadequate social support (F = 4.10, P = 0.049), and the cardiovascular disease-related health status of waist circumference (t = 3.22, P = 0.004), body fat (Z = -2.23, P = 0.024), and triglycerides (Z = -3.04, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

This study's significance is its potential for increasing the convenience and joy of participating in intervention programs and acquiring health information through mobile platforms, which are easily accessible to the workers.