Sustainable Office Intervention, Impact of a Sustainable Lifestyle on Diet, Physical Activity and Carbon Footprint

NCT ID: NCT06698094

Last Updated: 2024-11-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 90 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-10-04
• Study Completion Date: 2026-12-24

Brief Summary

The main goal of the study, Sustainable Office Intervention (SOFIA), is to promote and ease the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle within an office environment, with the dual goals of enhancing public health and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. Specifically, the study aims to assess the effectiveness of promoting sustainable lifestyle choices in the office workplace compared to promoting a conventional healthy lifestyle in regards to diet and physical activity.

Detailed Description

The participants will be recruited at companies in the Swedish office sector, and after recruitment and baseline assessment, the participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups Healthy Lifestyle (HL) or Sustainable Lifestyle (SL).

All participants will complete web-based questionnaires including background information about weight, height, diet, physical activity, smoking, education and other relevant background variables at the beginning of the study as well as at the end of the study. Participants will attend separate group-based workshops 6 times during the 8-week intervention period held by trained personnel. During these workshops, participants will be guided by education, food provision, and assistance to identify facilitators and barriers to a healthy or sustainable lifestyle. In addition, adherence to a healthy or sustainable lifestyle will be reinforced using a behavioral support package provided through a digital platform during the intervention period.

We will compare baseline, midpoint, and final (i.e. week 0, 4 and 8) nutrient intake, CO2e, and the dietary sustainability score for the two diets with an ANOVA model. We assume a dropout rate of 10-15% after baseline assessment (based on our previous pilot study from the fall of 2017) Climate Friendly and Ecological Food on Microbiota (CLEAR). Therefore, we will recruit 47 people to each group to have at least 40 at the end of the study. With 40 participants in each group, this analysis has >90% power to detect a 50% reduction in CO2e for the intervention group. To gain further insight into the development of intake of nutrients, CO2e, and the dietary sustainability score during the follow-up, we will use linear mixed models, with individual-specific baseline trajectories. Moreover, we will perform substitution analyses, i.e. scenarios where a number of meals high in CO2e are substituted for meals low in CO2e. Statistical analyses will be done in R-statistics.

Conditions

Healthy Lifestyle; Healthy Diet

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Healthy lifestyle group (HL)

The control group will receive advice about a conventional healthy diet according to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR 2014) and international physical activity recommendations from WHO. The participants will get information about the recommended distribution of energy from macronutrients i.e. energy coming from fat, protein, and carbohydrates, as well as general recommendations about the "plate model", i.e. the combination of food on the plate to adhere to the recommended nutrient intake. Additionally, they will receive instructions to increase physical activity to reach 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week or the equivalent vigorous activity.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Healthy lifestyle

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

To encourage and nudge a healthy lifestyle in an office context, the participants in this arm will function as a control group receiving general recommendations based on NNR 2014 nutritional recommendations and WHO physical activity recommendations.

Sustainable lifestyle group (SL)

The sustainable lifestyle group will receive instructions to increase the consumption of healthy organic plant-based foods that is carbon or environmentally friendly (i.e. fruits, vegetables, legumes, multigrain cereals, or labeled foods) and decrease consumption of beef and dairy products. We expect that the reduction of diet-related CO2e will be 50% as compared to the baseline, while the intake of nutrients such as fiber, vitamin C, and folate will increase. Additionally, they will receive instructions to increase active and emission-free transportation, i.e. walking and biking to and from work and meetings.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Sustainable lifestyle

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

To encourage and nudge a sustainable lifestyle in an office context in order to improve public health and combat climate change.

Interventions

Sustainable lifestyle

To encourage and nudge a sustainable lifestyle in an office context in order to improve public health and combat climate change.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Healthy lifestyle

To encourage and nudge a healthy lifestyle in an office context, the participants in this arm will function as a control group receiving general recommendations based on NNR 2014 nutritional recommendations and WHO physical activity recommendations.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Preform office work ≤20 hours/week

Exclusion Criteria

• Allergies excluding large food groups
• Visual or speech disability
• Not owning a smartphone.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL)

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Mälardalen University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Katarina Bälter, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Mälardalen University

Locations

Mälardalen University

Västerås, Västmanland County, Sweden

Countries

Sweden

References

Glympi A, Chasioti A, Balter K. Dietary Interventions to Promote Healthy Eating among Office Workers: A Literature Review. Nutrients. 2020 Dec 7;12(12):3754. doi: 10.3390/nu12123754.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 33297328 (View on PubMed)

Balter K. The importance of considering both nutrient quality and climate impact to support sustainable development. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 Aug 2;114(2):412-413. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab167. No abstract available.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 34091673 (View on PubMed)

Related Links

https://www.sofco.se/

Official swedish project website

Other Identifiers

1-2020/0244

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id