Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: In a similar way to food-taxation strategies, interventions such as discounted healthy menus, point-of-purchase advertisements, and sugar-free beverages for employees at worksites might prevent obesity. Unlike individual/group-focused nutrition education programs, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of food environmental interventions that incorporate financial incentive strategies for obesity prevention at the population level, including the amount of available information and equity markers (e.g. low-income and chronic disease subgroups).
Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of financial incentive policies targeting employees at worksite cafeterias for obesity prevention.
Methods: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO (August 2014) and included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) only. We followed standard Cochrane methods for trial eligibility criteria, risk of bias assessment, data extraction and accuracy.
Results: We identified 42 of 2000 potentially eligible studies, of which three of 39 RCTs were included. Included studies compared the intervention versus none or multiple interventions, and involved a total of 1498 employees. Two of the trials were conducted in the USA and one in the Netherlands. The trials featured multi-components, e.g. low-priced healthy menus combined with nutrition education, food labeling and fitness sessions. Food/nutrition intake was primarily assessed followed by physical measures, e.g. body-mass index (BMI). Data were not amenable to meta-analysis due to non-comparable effectiveness measurements. The trials had mostly an unclear to high risk of bias. The assumptions of the tested covariates, e.g. smoking and working experience, were not specified. The intervention effects were not clear for changes in BMI and weight.
Conclusions: We found that evidence about the effectiveness of the targeted intervention was limited. Further research in this area is warranted, particularly to ensure equity among disadvantaged subpopulations.
Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of financial incentive policies targeting employees at worksite cafeterias for obesity prevention.
Methods: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO (August 2014) and included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) only. We followed standard Cochrane methods for trial eligibility criteria, risk of bias assessment, data extraction and accuracy.
Results: We identified 42 of 2000 potentially eligible studies, of which three of 39 RCTs were included. Included studies compared the intervention versus none or multiple interventions, and involved a total of 1498 employees. Two of the trials were conducted in the USA and one in the Netherlands. The trials featured multi-components, e.g. low-priced healthy menus combined with nutrition education, food labeling and fitness sessions. Food/nutrition intake was primarily assessed followed by physical measures, e.g. body-mass index (BMI). Data were not amenable to meta-analysis due to non-comparable effectiveness measurements. The trials had mostly an unclear to high risk of bias. The assumptions of the tested covariates, e.g. smoking and working experience, were not specified. The intervention effects were not clear for changes in BMI and weight.
Conclusions: We found that evidence about the effectiveness of the targeted intervention was limited. Further research in this area is warranted, particularly to ensure equity among disadvantaged subpopulations.