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

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. © nina charlotte balk-møller,sanne kellebjerg poulsen,thomas meinert larsen.