Lifestyle intervention program at workplace helps improve employee's health

A new study has demonstrated that a healthy lifestyle intervention program administered at workplace can significantly reduces risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.

Lead author M. Kaye Kramer, Dr.P.H., assistant professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Epidemiology, said that health care expenditures associated with diabetes were spiraling, causing widespread concern, particularly for employers who worry about employee health and productivity.

Kramer said that this leads to an interest in workplace health promotion, however, there were very few evidence-based programs that actually demonstrated improvement in employee health.

Dr. Kramer and colleagues built on the DPP to create a group-based program that puts the findings into practice, called Group Lifestyle Balance and this program is divided into 22 sessions over a one-year period and aimed at helping people make lifestyle changes to improve health.

Senior author Andrea Kriska, Ph.D., professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Epidemiology and principal investigator of the study, said that their Group Lifestyle Balance program had proven successful in diverse community settings, so they adapted it for the workplace since we found that there was a real need for effective programs that could fit into people's work lives.

A total of 89 employees at Bayer Corp. in Robinson Township, Pa., who were at risk for diabetes or heart disease were enrolled in the demonstration program in the fall of 2010 and followed for 18 months.

Over the course of a year, participants lost an average of 5 percent of their body weight (10 pounds), shrunk their waistlines by about 2 inches and brought down the levels of fat and sugar in their blood and all measures that reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The study is published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.