Work-Site Nutrition Education Decreases Metabolic Syndrome Factors

Metabolic syndrome is a crucial health issue for adults. Therefore, this study conducted an 8-week workplace nutrition education intervention to examine the effects of the intervention on metabolic syndrome factors associated with employees. A historical intervention was designed to recruit adults with a body mass index level of >22 and without any endocrine disorder from a community in Yilan, Taiwan. There were intervention and control groups. The intervention group (n = 158) was recruited between 2010 and 2012 and received an 8-week intervention, during which dietitians delivered a nutrition education session and a one-on-one dietary guidance session on a weekly basis. The age- and sexmatched control group (n = 34) was recruited between 2014 and 2015toanalyze the metabolic syndrome variables.After8-week nutrition education intervention, the intervention group experienced a significantly deeper reduction in the levels of metabolic syndrome factors than did the control group (P< 0.05). During the intervention period, the participants who had metabolic syndrome at baseline experienced more reduction in waist circumference, diastolic blood pressure, and blood lipid convention than did those without the syndrome (P< 0.01). Implementing an 8-week workplace nutrition education intervention by dietitians significantly reduces certain metabolic syndrome markers.