Acceptability, Feasibility, and Effectiveness of a Worksite Intervention to Lower Cardiometabolic Risk in South Africa: Protocol

As an important way to translate cardiovascular disease prevention efforts, worksite intervention programs can be used to effectively facilitate healthy food choices, health education, and social support among employees, in a targeted approach to improve health outcomes and physical activity levels of employees. In this study, the effectiveness of a canteen and a behavioral intervention on cardiometabolic risk among prediabetic and prehypertensive employees at two multinational worksites in South Africa will be measured. This two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be structured to provide a six-week intervention at two multinational companies spread across eight worksites and will include a canteen and behavioral arm (CB) and a canteen only (CO) arm. Participants who were either prediabetic or prehypertensive completed the baseline assessments, which included anthropometry, a demographic and lifestyle survey, the global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) and the 24 h food recall. Participants were randomized into the CO and the canteen and CB intervention groups. The CO group received six weeks of canteen intervention [changes to enable a healthy food environment], while the CB group received six weeks of canteen intervention along with a behavioral intervention. The behavioral intervention included an intense six-week lifestyle program aligned to the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). This study will assess the added benefit of environmental-level changes aimed at lowering cardiometabolic risk in a low–middle-income country (LMIC) and has the potential for scale-up to other worksites in South Africa and globally.