Health-related effects of worksite interventions involving physical exercise and reduced workhours
2008 (English)In: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, ISSN 0355-3140, E-ISSN 1795-990X, Vol. 34, no 3, p. 179-188Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Objectives: This study examined the health-related effects of two worksite interventions, physical exercise and reduced workhours, on women employed in dentistry. Methods: Six workplaces were randomized to one of the following three conditions: (i) 2.5 hours of weekly, mandatory physical exercise of middle-to-high intensity to be performed during workhours (N=62), (ii) a reduction of full-time weekly workhours from 40 to 37.5 hours (N=50), and (iii) reference. In all, 177 women participated. Biomarkers and self-ratings in questionnaires were obtained before the intervention (T1), and six (T2) and 12 months (T3) after the intervention. Results: The results showed increased levels of physical activity and exercise in all of the groups, the level of physical exercise being significantly greater in the physical exercise group. Repeated-measures analyses of variance using data from T1 and T3 for biological measures and all three time points for self-ratings produced significant interaction effects for glucose, waist-to-hip ratio, and work ability and clear trends for general symptoms and upper-extremity disorders. Posthoc analyses showed that the results of the health-related measures differed between the interventions, decreased glucose and upper-extremity disorders in the exercise group, and increased high-density lipoprotein and waist-to-hip ratio among those working reduced hours. Conclusions: These results show that the two interventions had small and varied effects on biomarkers and self-reports of different aspects of health among women. It is suggested that interventions involving a modest reduction in workhours seem to be more effective if these hours are used for physical exercise.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health , 2008. Vol. 34, no 3, p. 179-188
Keywords [en]
Biomarker, Cluster randomization, Health promotion, Health protection initiative, Musculoskeletal disorder, Physical activity, Upper-extremity disorder, Woman, Work ability
National Category
Work Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-45701DOI: 10.5271/sjweh.1227ISI: 000257572700003Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-48049092418OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-45701DiVA, id: diva2:1364853
2019-10-222019-10-222022-03-18Bibliographically approved