Corporate health management: evaluation of an educational and environmental intervention to promote a balanced, less salty diet, Part 1

Peer-reviewed / Manuscript (original contribution) received: March 25, 2019 / Revision accepted: July 04, 2019

Nutrition education of employees

Introduction

Nutrition-related chronic diseases impair the well-being of the many people affected by them and put a burden on the healthcare systems of many countries [1, 2]. In Switzerland, the direct health care costs of cardiovascular diseases alone amount to approximately CHF 10.3 billion per year. Added to this, there are indirect costs of CHF 4.9–6.4 billion per year due to reduced work productivity or early retirement [3, 4].

Hypertension is the most important physiological risk factor here, and a complex interplay of lifestyle and behavioral factors contribute to its development. These factors include smoking, physical inactivity, high stress levels, excessive alcohol consumption, and in particular an unbalanced diet with regular consumption of foods rich in salt and fat, but simultaneously low consumption of fruit and vegetables. Combined with other metabolic factors, such as being severely overweight, further health complications may occur [5].

Abstract

As part of the Swiss Nutrition and Salt Strategy, a 12-month combined educational and environmental intervention was carried out in 2015–2016 with the aim of promoting a balanced diet with adequate salt content in seven organizations with staff canteens. The programs were evaluated based on survey data with a view to determining their suitability for use in corporate health management. The nutrition education promoted health literacy and food literacy among the employees who participated and it was able to trigger a change in behavior. The coaching of catering teams encouraged the catering staff to reformulate the foods, but for the most part, this change could not be consolidated due to operational barriers. Combined, the two programs offer a solid foundation for longer-term interventions in workplace settings where there is a desire to understand and promote health literacy and hence food literacy as quality features in all areas of a workplace.

Keywords: Corporate health management, educational intervention, environmental intervention, nutrition education, food literacy, coaching of catering teams, communal catering, sodium, salt

Supplement to the article: Table 2 and Figure 2

Full text PDF (free version)