Study on the Effects of Health Guidance for Men with High Risks of Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

The study intends to clarify the effect of health guidance provided by an occupational health nurse for six months for male workers identified with high risks of metabolic syndrome at workplace health check. The subjects were 73 males out of 137 total workers who went through the health check, and one health nurse intervened throughout the study period. The effect of guidance was measured by the changes in attendance persistency, abdominal girth, weight, improvements in eating and exercising habits, their eagerness to improve lifestyle, etc. Data analysis was performed by X² test.

The participants’ average age was 48.0, and they mainly involved deskwork. The guidance attendance persistency was 57.5%, and among the 42.5% dropouts, 35% discontinued due to overwhelming workload. At the beginning, the averages of abdominal girth and weight were 91.7cm and 76.0kg respectively. After six months, they were reduced by 2.0cm in girth and 1.4kg in weight. The lifestyle improvement rate was 55.0% in diet and 25.0% in physical exercise, with the diet improvement rate significantly high (P<0.01). As for their willingness for lifestyle improvement, 55.0% participants, more than two times the initial rate, expressed their intention to improve it within half a year. It is necessary to restart metabolic syndrome prevention by setting a new goal as well as to provide their families with information from workplaces in order to ensure their continued cooperation.