Prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in occupational health care: Feasibility and effectiveness

Aims: To evaluate feasibility and effectiveness of lifestyle counseling in occupational setting on decreasing risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Methods: A health check-up including physical examination, blood tests, questionnaires and health advice was completed on 2312 employees of an airline company. Participants with elevated risk for type 2 diabetes based on FINDRISC score and/or blood glucose measurement (n = 657) were offered 1-3 additional lifestyle counseling sessions and 53% of them agreed to participate. After 2.5 years, 1347 employees of 2199 invited participated in a follow-up study. Results: Among women and men with low baseline diabetes risk, cardiovascular risk factors increased slightly during follow-up. Larger proportion of the men who attended interventions lost weight at least 5% compared with the non-attendees (18.4% vs. 8.4%, p = 0.031) and their FINDRISC score increased less (0.6 vs. 1.5, p = 0.037). Older age associated with participation in follow-up and higher baseline FINDRISC score and presence of clinical and lifestyle risk factors an problems in sleep and mood increased attendance in interventions. Conclusions: Identification of employees with cardiovascular and diabetes risk, and the low intensity lifestyle intervention were feasible in occupational health-care setting. However, the health benefits were modest and observed only for men with increased risk. (C) 2014 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.