Abstract
Objectives: This study’s objective was to assess the effects of a 12-month physical exercise intervention on work ability (WAI) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in healthy working adults. Methods: The study group had 371 participants, of which 338 (212 women and 126 men) were allocated in the exercise group and 33 (17 women and 16 men) in the control group. The exercise group underwent a 12-month exercise program followed by a 12-month follow-up. WAI and CRF were evaluated at baseline, and at 4, 8, 12, and 24 study months, in both exercise and control groups. The exercise group was divided into subgroups according to baseline WAI classifications (poor/moderate, good, excellent). Results: During the 12-month exercise intervention, the exercise group increased their leisure-time physical activity by 71% (p = 0.016) and improved the mean WAI by 3% and CRF by 7% (p < 0.0001, in both), while WAI and CRF decreased in the control group (ANCOVA using age, sex and BMI as covariates, for WAI, p = 0.013 and for CRF, p = 0.008). The changes in WAI and CRF between the exercise group and control group were significantly different during the intervention (baseline vs. 12-months, p = 0.028 and p = 0.007) and after the follow-up (p = 0.001 and p = 0.040), respectively. A light positive correlation between the changes in WAI and in CRF (r = 0.19, p < 0.01) existed. WAI improvement was the highest (13%, p < 0.0001) in the subgroup having poor/moderate WAI at baseline (ANCOVA, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The improvement of WAI associated with CRF. These results suggest that a physical exercise intervention may improve work ability.
Highlights
Physical activity is one option to increase work ability [1]
During the 12-month intervention, the Work Ability Index (WAI) score improved after four-months by two percent (p = 0.001), after eight-months by three percent (p < 0.001), after 12-months by three percent (p < 0.001) in the exercise group (Table 2)
We investigated the effect of a 12-month physical exercise intervention and a 12-month follow-up on the work ability and cardiorespiratory fitness in working adults
Summary
Physical activity is one option to increase work ability [1]. In a systematic review of14 cross-sectional studies and six longitudinal studies assessing the effects of work-related and individual factors on the Work Ability Index (WAI), the factors associated with the poor work ability were: lack of leisure time, vigorous physical activity, poor musculoskeletal capacity, older age, obesity, high mental work demands, lack of autonomy, poor physical work environment, and a high physical work load [2]. Physical activity is one option to increase work ability [1]. The relationship between increased physical activity and improved fitness on perceived work ability is inconsistent [3,4]. Even if physical exercise interventions are commonly used in promoting employees’ physical and psychosocial functioning and work ability, limited scientific evidence about the effectiveness of such programs exist [5,6,7,8,9,10]. WAI describes the balance between work demands and a persons functional capacity (e.g., health, physical capacity, competence, values) [14] and physical activity interventions are suggested to improve work ability in both skilled and unskilled workers
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