A health promotion programme for oil refinery employees: changes of health promotion needs observed at three years

The main aim of this three-year follow-up study was to evaluatethe long-term effects of a workplace health promotion interventionprogramme offered by the Neste Oyj corporation's occupationalhealth service. Another aim was to study factors associatedwith changes in health promotion needs. These were assessedusing information obtained by means of questionnaires and laboratorymeasurements. The target areas assessed were physical activity,musculoskeletal problems, dietary habits, obesity, blood pressure,serum lipids, smoking, quality of sleep and mental well-being.Participants from one oil refinery were offered special healthpromotion counselling, while those from the other oil refinerystudied received only their personal results, written informationand instructions. Evaluation of the changes in needs was mainlybased on comparison of the results of two examinations performedwith an interval of three years. Effects of special health promotioncounselling were observed in the target area of physical activity.Elimination of certain health promotion needs was seen in bothgroups in all of the target areas. The most extensive changeswere seen in the target areas of musculoskeletal symptoms, dietaryhabits, blood pressure and mental well-being. Basic education,occupational status and age-group, as well as the value of tendinghealth were frequent variables explaining the reduction in theneed for health promotion activities. Worker participation inhealth promotion counselling activities provided by occupationalhealth services can be high, as in this study in which the participationrate was 90% and the drop-out rate during the three years only10%.