The effect of a life style modification campaign for Bangkok provincial electricity officers.

ABSTRACT

Background: Office workers with sedentary life styles might be at risk to become obese and later develop cardiovascular risk factors. A life style modification campaign (LSMC) had been introduced to 4,300 provincial electricity officers (PEO) during July 2007-June 2008. The campaign was designed with the aim to encourage behavioral change within a large organization. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the LSMC on improving health status among PEOs who attended the program regularly, occasionally, and rarely. Methods: A quasi experimental study was performed to compare pre- and post- health status records (HSR) including body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), waist-hip circumference ratio (WHC), skin fold measurement (SFM), hand grip strength (HG), body flexibility (BF) and cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) of the PEOs who attended the LSMC. Results: After 1 year of LSMC, there were 173 PEOs who completed the program. Within the regularly attending group, we found statistically significant improvement in BMI, SBP, WHC, SFM, and CRF with p-values of 0.02, 0.03, <0.001, <0.001 and 0.048 respectively. Meanwhile the group that occasionally and rarely attended the program did not do as well. Conclusion: The LSMP has demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing modifiable risk factors within the well compliant group. The benefit toward work performance or the cost effectiveness of the campaign was not included in this study.