Abstract
BackgroundAs with food-taxation strategies, such interventions as discounted healthy menus, point-of-purchase advertisements, and sugar-free beverages for employees at worksites could help prevent obesity. This study assessed the effectiveness of food environment interventions incorporating financial incentive or social marketing strategies at workplace cafeterias, vending machines, and kiosks toward preventing obesity and improving dietary habits.MethodsWe conducted searches on CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. The study designs included were randomized control trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs. We evaluated the effectiveness of financial incentive or social marketing strategies interventions (such as discounts) on health outcomes or food intake behavior. Two reviewers independently screened the studies for inclusion. We assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool. This protocol was published in 2014.ResultsWe included three trials, with a combined total of 3013 participants. There were limited available data from RCTs on changes in body weight. No eligible social marketing studies were retrieved. In some cases, a meta-analysis could not be conducted owing to differences in the analytic methods for the outcomes.ConclusionsLack of evidence made it difficult to draw any conclusions. In future surveys, it will be necessary to conduct interventions focusing only on financial incentive intervention versus no intervention in order to determine whether the incentive strategy has a clear impact.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD4201401056
Highlights
As with food-taxation strategies, such interventions as discounted healthy menus, point-of-purchase advertisements, and sugar-free beverages for employees at worksites could help prevent obesity
The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness on health outcomes or food intake behavior at the population level of financial incentive policies applied to workplace cafeterias, vending machines, or kiosks in preventing obesity among employees
Regarding the outcome parameters of weight change and Total cholesterol (TC), Low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and High-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels [34], we found that the sample size was small, that the assessment for risk of bias was unclear, and that the research population mostly consisted of obese overweight
Summary
As with food-taxation strategies, such interventions as discounted healthy menus, point-of-purchase advertisements, and sugar-free beverages for employees at worksites could help prevent obesity. This study assessed the effectiveness of food environment interventions incorporating financial incentive or social marketing strategies at workplace cafeterias, vending machines, and kiosks toward preventing obesity and improving dietary habits. Obesity is most prevalent among 40- to 60-year-olds [14] As this demographic is highly represented in the workplace, the company cafeteria is an ideal setting for introducing dietary interventions that focus on eating and buying habits, for workers in general and for this high-risk group in particular. People typically spend more than one third of their daily lives in the workplace, and many use employee cafeterias, vending machines, and kiosks more than once a day; the workplace is an important location for promoting changes in the eating behavior of the working generation. A population approach to reducing obesity has the potential to change eating behavior and has a much broader coverage than group interventions [15]
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