Environmental level
Making healthy choices easier at workplace
The environmental level intervention StopDia on Work aims to increase employees’ healthy dietary choices and physical activity at workplace by small choice architectural modifications in every-day working environment.
The 12-month-long quasi-experimental pretest-post-test intervention is carried out at workplaces that operate in three provinces of Finland: Northern Savonia, Southern Karelia, and Päijät-Häme. The study sample consists of 103 working units from 16 workplaces of various fields of operation. The effects, acceptability, and feasibility of the intervention will be assessed based on data collected with questionnaires and interviews.
StopDia on Work is based on nudging and choice architecture
The StopDia on Work intervention is based on nudge and choice architectural approaches. These approaches are grounded on the dual process theories of cognition, and exploit behavioural insights on the boundedly rational nature of behaviour-regulating cognitive processes.
Nudge interventions aim to influence people’s behaviour by altering the choice architecture of environments, typically the selection, arrangement, or presentation of available choice options, without forbidding any alternatives or changing incentives. The intervention was designed exploiting strategies included in the StopDia Choice Architectural Toolkit for Creating a Healthy Working Environment.
StopDia Choice Architectural Toolkit for Creating a Healthy Working Environment
We developed a toolkit that consists of 44 practical and inexpensive choice architectural strategies for modifying physical and social working environment to facilitate healthy dietary choices, engagement in physical activity, and recovery from work-induced strain during working hours.
The toolkit is designed for the use of employers. All of the strategies included in the toolkit are based on scientific evidence, behavioral insights on human behavior, and knowledge on needs and challenges of workplace health promotion gained from earlier conducted employer workshops and interviews.
All toolkit strategies also support the targets of the StopDia digital application and group counselling of the individual level intervention.
