1094 Transfórmate: workplace health promotion and wellness program at grupo progreso

Abstract

Objective Reduce chronic non-communicable disease risk factors associated to poor diet and physical inactivity, plus increase knowledge about healthy lifestyles in employees at Grupo Progreso. Methods Chronic diseases kill more than 38 million people every year, and almost three quarters of deaths occur in low and middle income countries. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that increase the risk to present cardiovascular disease and is becoming a public heath problem. In Latin American the prevalence is 25%. Metabolic syndrome is a set of 3 or more altered factors, for example: Waist circumference, HDL cholesterol ‘also known as good cholesterol’, blood pressure, Triglycerides, Fasting glucose or pharmacotherapy for the last 3 factors. We decided to implement a wellness program called Transformate. Labour intervention study in 1308 employees. We implemented a health promotion and wellness program, previously validated in a pilot project. Educational workshops were given where the main topics were: Dietary Guidelines for Guatemala, physical activity, pedometer program and stress management. All participants received personalised dietary treatment, practical sessions of physical activity, weekly text messaging, educational material, analysis of lipid profile, fasting glucose and drug treatment when needed. An assessment of initial and final knowledge was performed. Effectiveness in reducing risk factors for chronic non-communicable disease was calculated for people who had metabolic syndrome at the start of the program (N: 301). The data were analysed in STATA SE 13.0. measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated. Hypothesis tests were performed using the Wilcoxon test for quantitative and McNemar Chi 2 for qualitative variables. Results Of the 301 employees, 90.7% was men and 9.3% women with a median age of 40 (IQR 35–47).The set of strategies achieved a 47% reduction of the metabolic syndrome. Compared to other programs, in Korea they reported 30% of reduction and in Italy 35%. The combination of educational, behavioural and biomedical interventions may explain this high percentage. The chronic non-communicable disease risk factors that reduced significantly were: low HDL-cholesterol 18% (p≤0.001), high triglycerides 14% (p≤0.001), low consumption of fruits and vegetables 13% (p≤0.001) and physical inactivity 8% (p=0.025). The median of daily steps were 8559 (IQR: 5,813–10,765), the median of the initial knowledge assessments were 70 (IQR: 50–80) and final 90 (RIC: 80–100). Conclusion A significant reduction in metabolic syndrome and chronic non-communicable disease risk factors associated with an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle was observed, in addition to an increase in knowledge about healthy lifestyles after implementing the program at the corporate level.