IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i6p1901-d332678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of Workplace Interventions for Improving Absenteeism, Productivity, and Work Ability of Employees: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia Tarro

    (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Health Education and Promotion, 43201 Reus, Spain
    Technological Unit of Nutrition and Health, EURECAT-Technology Centre of Catalonia, 43204 Reus, Spain)

  • Elisabet Llauradó

    (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Health Education and Promotion, 43201 Reus, Spain)

  • Gemma Ulldemolins

    (Activa Mutua, Mutua Colaboradora con la Seguridad Social, Tarragona, 43204 Catalonia, Spain)

  • Pedro Hermoso

    (Activa Mutua, Mutua Colaboradora con la Seguridad Social, Tarragona, 43204 Catalonia, Spain)

  • Rosa Solà

    (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Health Education and Promotion, 43201 Reus, Spain
    Technological Unit of Nutrition and Health, EURECAT-Technology Centre of Catalonia, 43204 Reus, Spain
    Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus, Internal medicine department IISPV, Reus, 43204 Catalonia, Spain)

Abstract

To determine the effectiveness of workplace interventions and the most effective methodological design for the improvement of employee productivity, work ability, and absenteeism. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of workplace interventions was conducted (PROSPERO, CRD42018094083). The PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Cochrane databases were searched. RCTs from 2000 to 2017 and with employees (18–65 years) were selected. Then, intervention characteristics and work-related outcomes data were extracted. A total of 47 RCTs were included in the systematic review, and 19 RCTs (11 absenteeism, 7 productivity, and 5 work ability) were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that the effectiveness of workplace interventions for absenteeism was −1.56 (95% CI, −2.67 to −0.44) and −2.65 (95% CI, −4.49 to −0.81) considering only moderate quality RCTs. In contrast, only a few studies of workplace interventions for productivity and work ability were included, which was insufficient for determining the effectiveness and best design for improving these work outcomes. The workplace is an interesting environment to reduce absenteeism, and individualized and counseling interventions with <10 sessions/total were the most effective workplace intervention methodological design for reducing the absenteeism of employees. Future high-quality RCTs that also consider health risks should be implemented to strengthen the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Tarro & Elisabet Llauradó & Gemma Ulldemolins & Pedro Hermoso & Rosa Solà, 2020. "Effectiveness of Workplace Interventions for Improving Absenteeism, Productivity, and Work Ability of Employees: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:6:p:1901-:d:332678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/1901/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/1901/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. KURODA Sachiko & YAMAMOTO Isamu, 2016. "Workers' Mental Health, Long Work Hours, and Workplace Management: Evidence from workers' longitudinal data in Japan," Discussion papers 16017, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Lars Donath & Oliver Faude & Yannick Schefer & Ralf Roth & Lukas Zahner, 2015. "Repetitive Daily Point of Choice Prompts and Occupational Sit-Stand Transfers, Concentration and Neuromuscular Performance in Office Workers: An RCT," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Jantien van Berkel & Cécile R L Boot & Karin I Proper & Paulien M Bongers & Allard J van der Beek, 2014. "Effectiveness of a Worksite Mindfulness-Related Multi-Component Health Promotion Intervention on Work Engagement and Mental Health: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, January.
    4. Catherine Borness & Judith Proudfoot & John Crawford & Michael Valenzuela, 2013. "Putting Brain Training to the Test in the Workplace: A Randomized, Blinded, Multisite, Active-Controlled Trial," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-8, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christina Nyhus Dhillon & Flaminia Ortenzi, 2023. "Assessing the Impact of Workforce Nutrition Programmes on Nutrition, Health and Business Outcomes: A Review of the Global Evidence and Future Research Agenda," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-12, May.
    2. Holly Blake & Sarah Somerset & Katharine Whittingham & Matthew Middleton & Mehmet Yildirim & Catrin Evans, 2020. "WHIRL Study: Workplace Health Interprofessional Learning in the Construction Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Yeboah, Samuel, 2023. "Balancing Growth and Green: Strategies for Sustainable Development in Developing Economies," MPRA Paper 118180, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Jun 2023.
    4. Le Zhang & Qinyi Gu & Chen Li & Yi Huang, 2022. "Characteristics and Spatial–Temporal Differences of Urban “Production, Living and Ecological” Environmental Quality in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Paola Gómez-Redondo & Victoria Marín & Javier Leal-Martín & Carlos Ruiz-Moreno & Verónica Giráldez-Costas & Pilar Urdiola & Ignacio Ara & Asier Mañas, 2022. "Association between Physical Activity Guidelines and Sedentary Time with Workers’ Health-Related Quality of Life in a Spanish Multinational Company," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-11, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katharina Wick & Oliver Faude & Susanne Manes & Lukas Zahner & Lars Donath, 2018. "I Can Stand Learning: A Controlled Pilot Intervention Study on the Effects of Increased Standing Time on Cognitive Function in Primary School Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Meng, Xin & Xue, Sen, 2017. "Social Networks and Mental Health Problems: Evidence from Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China," IZA Discussion Papers 10481, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sasaki, Shusaku & Kurokawa, Hirofumi & Ohtake, Fumio, 2019. "Positive and negative effects of social status on longevity: Evidence from two literary prizes in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Xin Meng & Sen Xue, 2020. "Social networks and mental health outcomes: Chinese rural–urban migrant experience," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 155-195, January.
    5. Belloni, Michele & Carrino, Ludovico & Meschi, Elena, 2022. "The impact of working conditions on mental health: Novel evidence from the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Bradley MacDonald & Xanne Janssen & Alison Kirk & Mhairi Patience & Ann-Marie Gibson, 2018. "An Integrative, Systematic Review Exploring the Research, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance of Interventions to Reduce Sedentary Behaviour in Office Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-29, December.
    7. Manpreet Blessin & Sophie Lehmann & Angela M. Kunzler & Rolf van Dick & Klaus Lieb, 2022. "Resilience Interventions Conducted in Western and Eastern Countries—A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-25, June.
    8. Kuroda, Sachiko & Yamamoto, Isamu, 2018. "Good boss, bad boss, workers’ mental health and productivity: Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 106-118.
    9. Maartje C. Bakhuys Roozeboom & Noortje M. Wiezer & Cécile R. L. Boot & Paulien M. Bongers & Roosmarijn M. C. Schelvis, 2021. "Use of Intervention Mapping for Occupational Risk Prevention and Health Promotion: A Systematic Review of Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, February.
    10. Sato, Kaori & Kuroda, Sachiko & Owan, Hideo, 2020. "Mental health effects of long work hours, night and weekend work, and short rest periods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    11. Kay, Adam A. & Skarlicki, Daniel P., 2020. "Cultivating a conflict-positive workplace: How mindfulness facilitates constructive conflict management," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 8-20.
    12. Samson O. Ojo & Daniel P. Bailey & Angel M. Chater & David J. Hewson, 2018. "The Impact of Active Workstations on Workplace Productivity and Performance: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, February.
    13. Bradley MacDonald & Ann-Marie Gibson & Xanne Janssen & Alison Kirk, 2020. "A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Digital Intervention to Improve Sedentary Behaviour Across Multiple Workplace Settings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-27, June.
    14. Sachiko Kuroda & Isamu Yamamoto, 2019. "Why Do People Overwork at the Risk of Impairing Mental Health?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1519-1538, June.
    15. Rupprecht, Silke & Koole, Wibo & Chaskalson, Michael & Tamdjidi, Chris & West, Michael, 2018. "Runnng too far ahead. Towards a broader understanding of mindfulness in organizations," MindRxiv dm7v2, Center for Open Science.
    16. Simona Laura Dragos & Codruta Mare & Cristian Mihai Dragos & Gabriela Mihaela Muresan & Alexandra-Anca Purcel, 2022. "Does voluntary health insurance improve health and longevity? Evidence from European OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(8), pages 1397-1411, November.
    17. Aurora B. Le & Abdulrazak O. Balogun & Todd D. Smith, 2022. "Long Work Hours, Overtime, and Worker Health Impairment: A Cross-Sectional Study among Stone, Sand, and Gravel Mine Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-9, June.
    18. Shu-Ling Huang & Ren-Hau Li & Feng-Ying Huang & Feng-Cheng Tang, 2015. "The Potential for Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Workplace Mental Health Promotion: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    19. Daniels, Kevin & Watson, David & Nayani, Rachel & Tregaskis, Olga & Hogg, Martin & Etuknwa, Abasiama & Semkina, Antonina, 2021. "Implementing practices focused on workplace health and psychological wellbeing: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    20. Samson O. Ojo & Daniel P. Bailey & David J. Hewson & Angel M. Chater, 2019. "Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Breaking Up Sitting Time among Desk-Based Office Workers: A Qualitative Investigation Using the TDF and COM-B," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-19, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:6:p:1901-:d:332678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.