Wellness Strategies

BOOCS Program Could Lower Obesity-Related Injury Risk

A Japanese model of health education among workers may hold promise for an alternative to traditional methods to help improve the well-being of the workforce.
By: | February 23, 2015

Employers seeking to improve their employees’ health and reduce illnesses and injuries may want to look to a Japanese model. By instituting a unique health education program started in that country, health risks among obese workers were significantly reduced — up to 15 years later.

The program used a new method of health education among workers in the 1990s. A follow-up study published recently in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine may hold promise for an alternative to traditional methods to help improve the well-being of the workforce.

“The results indicate a mortality benefit by participation in [the Brain-Oriented Obesity Control System] program,” the study said. “For prevention of metabolic syndrome, effective measures are strongly needed in the future, and it is suggested that [the] BOOCS program will contribute to them as a new approach for health promotion.”

The follow-up study results were released as the prevalence of obese workers continues to increase. According to the study, the increase amounts to “25.1 percent for males and 23.9 percent for females in the United States as a body mass index of 30 or higher in 2003 to 2009, and 28.5 percent for males and 11.6 percent for females in Japan as a BMI of 25 or higher in 2011.”

Along with the increase in BMI is a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially heart failure, as well as diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is defined as a disorder of energy utilization and storage, diagnosed by a co-occurrence of three out of five conditions, including abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, high serum triglycerides, and low high-density cholesterol levels.

“Hazard ratios were calculated with survival curves drawn to evaluate the mortality effects by the program participation,” according to the report. “The results support a protective effect on mortality by participating in [the] BOOCS program.”

BOOCS

Traditional approaches to behavior modification typically begin with prohibitions against unhealthy behaviors such as eating high-caloric foods, drinking alcohol, and smoking. Because of its strictness, this method “frequently results in the rebound of body weight and the appearance of [a] guilty conscience,” the report said.

BOOCS “begins with no prohibition,” the report said. It “is a unique method prioritizing the recovery from fatigue, in particular, ‘brain fatigue,’ and it eventually induces better lifestyle modification and improvement of body weight and serum lipids.”

The program includes two principles and three rules as a basis for “effective and active guidance.” The principles are “do not prohibit or order yourself as possible” and “do something pleasant for yourself.” The rules include:

  • Do not practice what you dislike even if it is good for your health.
  • Do not prohibit what you like even if it is bad for your health.
  • Do only what you like among good things and matters for your health.

The Japanese inventor of the program has said the approach “is quite useful for making the participants fully aware of the fundamentals of health promotion and disease prevention, which leads them to modify their health behavior,” according to the study. “He also insists that prohibitive and compulsive instructions are ineffective for behavior modification, and, in particular, those people who understand [the] significance of health would result in failure through such methods and fall into vicious circle such as rebounding body weight.”

The authors do not speculate on why the program works and say more research is needed. However, they point to the study results as proof that it is effective.

The Study

Public service employees working for a municipal government in Japan were introduced to a health service organization in 1992, which included health exams, seminars and guidance, and insurance programs. The BOOCS portion of the service included 10 one-day and two-day seminars annually with lectures on health care by physicians and practical exercises by professionals such as a physical instructor, a dietician, and a psychologist.

The initial study and 15-year follow-up research into an obesity program among Japanese workers included three groups. Workers who participated in the Brain-Oriented Obesity Control System were called the intervention subjects. Among the nonparticipants, comparative obese controls were those who had a body mass index of at least 25 or health problems related to obesity while reference subjects were the remainder. In the follow-up study 15 years later, the researchers identified participants who were deceased and their causes of death.

“Compared with comparative obese controls, hazard ratios for all causes were significantly lower in participants [of the BOOCS program] at 0.54,” the report said. “The “significant mortality changes” persisted during the follow-up period. “One of the reasons for such preventive effects of [the] BOOCS program may be related to improvement of obesity during follow-up.”

The authors noted that among male participants in the BOOCS program, BMIs decreased in the first five years of the study by 1 percent to 5 percent compared to both groups of nonparticipants. “These data coincide with the previous reports that both all-cause and cancer mortality were associated with obesity,” the report said. “These effects brought by [the] BOOCS program may result in the protective effect for mortality in this study.”

The results were not seen to the same extent among females. The authors speculated that it could be due to sociological factors, saying traditional gender roles remain and many women leave the workforce upon marriage or childbirth.

In conclusion, “the standardized mortality rates for all causes and all neoplasms in comparison with the general population were statistically lower among participants [in the BOOCS program] and reference subjects, which may be due to the healthy worker effect,” the study said.

Nancy Grover is the president of NMG Consulting and the Editor of Workers' Compensation Report, a publication of our parent company, LRP Publications. She can be reached at [email protected].

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