Effects of occupational health promotion interventions on health-related outcomes among employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Compared to workers of larger companies it is less clear what health promoting interventions might be beneficial for employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to critically appraise trials investigating health promotion programs among small business workers and self-employed individuals, by means of a systematic review.

METHODS

We conducted a search of primary studies using MEDLINE, Web of Science, LIVIVO and the Cochrane library. Our assessment followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and PRISMA.

RESULTS

We identified six trials including 5,854 participants from Asia, North America and Australia. Most were of moderate methodological quality, only one was of low quality. Some of the supervised psycho-educational lifestyle programs focusing on individual behavior changes showed benefits in terms of stress reduction and increased physical activity levels among small enterprise employees.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a huge knowledge gap on evidence-based health promotion interventions for self-employed and for small business workers, especially in Europe.