Workplaces implement various interventions aimed at promoting employee health, including those targeting dietary habits, physical activity, education, stress management, mindfulness and environmental modifications to promote movement. Published in The Lancet Public Health, a recent review concludes that in workplace health promotion, the most consistent impacts are achieved through mental health and stress management interventions, such as group-based mindfulness training.
E-health interventions conducted via the internet or over the mobile phone can be used to reduce mental health symptoms and stress; however, in weight management, multicomponent interventions yielded the best impacts. For instance, movement-promoting modifications of the work environment were somewhat effective at reducing sedentary behaviour during the workday.
“However, based on the studies included in this review, it should be noted that on average, the effects were minor, and there is little information on how long they persisted in participants' daily lives after the intervention. Only the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions appeared to be strong on average,” Professor Marianna Virtanen of the University of Eastern Finland notes.
Longer follow-up times could provide information on long-term effects
The review analysed the results of a total of 88 meta-analyses published in 2011–2024, reporting a total of 339 interventions. Of these interventions, 36 percent were targeted at mental health promotion and stress reduction, 25 percent addressed weight management or cardiovascular health, 22 percent addressed health-related behaviours, and 17 percent were targeted at musculoskeletal disorders.
“We evaluated the quality of the intervention studies and found that only 21 percent could be considered of even moderate quality, whereas the rest of them were poorer than that. Our review results are based on these 21 percent. The research designs and implementation processes of interventions should be improved, and follow-up periods extended to obtain more accurate and reliable information on their effectiveness and long-term impact.”
Workplaces are essential for health promotion, as they offer a setting for reaching the working-age population. According to Virtanen, intervention studies provide robust evidence for effectiveness.
“Meta-analyses, in turn, bring together existing intervention research and therefore, they provide stronger and more reliable evidence.”
From a public health perspective, the lack of high-quality studies and long-term follow-up, as well as the fragmentation of existing evidence, currently prevent fully reliable conclusions about the significance and overall effectiveness of workplace health interventions.
Research article:
Marianna Virtanen, Tea Lallukka, Marko Elovainio, Andrew Steptoe, Mika Kivimäki, Effectiveness of workplace interventions for health promotion, The Lancet Public Health, Volume 10, Issue 6, 2025, Pages e512-e530, ISSN 2468-2667, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00095-7.