Automated Behavioral Workplace Intervention to Prevent Weight Gain and Improve Diet

Abstract

Key Points Question Can an automated intervention using workplace cafeteria purchasing data to provide personalized feedback and nudges prevent weight gain and improve dietary choices? Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 602 employees at a single hospital site, the 1-year automated intervention did not prevent weight gain. The intervention group significantly increased healthy cafeteria purchases during the 1-year intervention, and this was sustained during 1-year of additional follow-up. Meaning These findings suggest that an automated intervention using food purchasing data improved workplace food choices over 2 years, but dietary changes did not prevent weight gain.

Influence of Nutrition, Food and Diet-Related Interventions in the Workplace: A Meta-Analysis with Meta-Regression

“…The majority of the studies included in the review were from the USA, with 17 trials [22,25,31,[34][35][36][37]39,40,42,43,45,47,48,50,54,55] and the Netherlands, with three trials [28,38,51].…”

“…The main pathologies observed in the study population were overweight and obesity [22][23][24][25]35,36,38,[40][41][42][43]46,50,52]; overweight [26,29,53,55]; obesity [37,45,51]; overweight, obesity and diabetes [31,32,34,39,47,48]; abdominal obesity and dyslipidemia [27,30]; overweight and musculoskeletal disorders [28]; obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease [33]; metabolic syndrome [44]; metabolic disease [49], and metabolic disease [54].…”

“…The intervention period ranged from a minimum of 10 weeks [34,42] to a maximum of 3 years [50], with 12 months being the most frequent intervention period [22,26,36,37,40,41,45,46,53,54].…”

“…Behavioral environmental strategies improved food selection, which, according to Thorndike et al [22], resulted in improvements in body weight. Even educational actions were effective in promoting healthy diets [32] and were postulated as promising long-term interventions (2 years) [35].…”

“…Interventions related to the workplace environment, including educational actions, financial incentives, availability and price of food and portion control: five studies [22,32,35,43,45].…”