A Before-and-after Study to Evaluate Effects of Low-cost Interventions for Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Modifications

Rationale: Lifestyle modifications, such as increasing physical exercise and reducing dietary salt and saturated fat intake contribute to prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Relevant improvements can already be achieved by small adaptations in everyday life. It is unclear whether simple low-cost interventions in the working environment can promote such healthy lifestyle adaptations.

Objective: To study the effect of low-cost interventions for promoting healthy lifestyle modifications.

Study design: Before-and-after intervention study. The study period will be subdivided in four parts of 2 weeks each: a run-in period, a before-measurement period, an intervention-period, and an after measurement period.

Study population: Staff and visitors of the University Medical Center Utrecht.

Study interventions:

• Promotion of stair climbing.
• Promotion of a low-salt soup alternative for the 'soup of the day'.
• Promotion of a low-fat alternative for the butter croissants.
• Exchange of the basket positions of butter and margarine between convenient and harder to reach locations.

Outcome measures:

• Number of passages through each part of the stair cases.
• Number of low-salt cream soup and normal clear soup cups sold in the hospital restaurant and ratio between them.
• Number of low-fat and normal croissants sold in the hospital restaurant and the ratio between them.
• Number of low-fat margarine servings and butter servings sold in the hospital restaurant and the ratio between them.