Background and Purpose: The workplace is one of the most important places to promote healthy eating and active living for adults. While most working people want to eat healthier, they do not have sufficient knowledge of how to do so. This study intended to encourage healthy eating through a series of interventions called “My Balanced Plate” and to examine its effectiveness in four aspects, abbreviated as CAKB: consciousness about healthy eating, attitude towards healthy eating, knowledge of healthy eating, and behavior changed in healthy eating. The association between daily exercise levels and the stages of change towards healthy eating were also examined in this study. Objective: The objectives of the study were to examine (1) the association between the subjects’ participation efforts and the performance on CAKB before and after the intervention and (2) the association between daily exercise levels and the stage of change towards healthy eating behavior before and after the intervention. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with surveys was used for this study. Participants were employees from a selected research institute who dined at their worksite restaurant. They were invited to participate in the three part intervention comprised of: “Sample plate display of My Balanced Plate (MBP)”, “Matching Game of the Six Food Groups (MG)” and “My Healthy Plate DIY (HPDIY)”. Surveys were conducted before and after the intervention for data collection. General Linear Model was used to analyze the results. Results: The data from 91 employees who had participated in both surveys were used in the GLM analysis. After adjusting for the covariates and baseline data, several major findings were found: (1) both consciousness and stage of change towards healthy eating behavior was significantly and positively associated with subjects’ frequency of participation as well as participation of “MBP”; (2) the consciousness changed before and after the intervention presented a significantly positive association with the participation of “MG”; (3) the changes in the stage of healthy eating behavior before and after the intervention presented a significantly positive association with the subjects’ participation in “HPDIY”;(4) the daily exercise levels after the intervention and the daily exercise levels changed before and after intervention presented significantly negative association with the change in the stage of healthy eating behavior. Conclusions: To ensure the effectiveness of promoting healthy eating consciousness and behavior at the workplace, future studies should consider multiple longitudinal promotion interventions and encourage full participation. The operational promotion intervention would have more positive effects on the improvement of healthy eating consciousness and the stage of behavior towards healthy eating.
Date:
2019-02
Relation:
2019 Active Living Conference. 2019 Feb:Abstract No.40.
