Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Dec 23, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 27, 2024 - Feb 21, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 26, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Stage of change theory-based, stage-matched intervention for healthy dietary intake among office workers: study protocol for a cluster randomised trial in a developing country
ABSTRACT
Background:
An unhealthy diet is a well-established risk factor for the development of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and office workers are at a higher risk of NCD due to their sedentary work style. Transtheoretical model-based (TTM) and stage-matched interventions effectively influenced dietary behavioural changes. The effectiveness of such interventions in the context of developing countries is yet to be assessed.
Objective:
To assess the effectiveness of a transtheoretical model-based, stage-matched intervention for healthy dietary intake among sedentary office workers in the Galle district
Methods:
A cluster randomised trial will be conducted in 20 clusters divided into intervention and control arms. A cluster will be an office with 30 clerical-type workers who are sedentary at work. A stage-matched intervention based on processes of behaviour change will be implemented in intervention clusters for three months. Participants will be provided with an intervention matched with their stage of change at the baseline. Pre-contemplators and contemplators will receive awareness-raising and emotional arousal interventions. Others will receive goal-setting and self-monitoring interventions. Stage of change and dietary intake will be assessed at the baseline and post-intervention through a staging algorithm and 24-hour dietary recall supplemented by a picture guide and computer software. Adherence to intervention will be assessed monthly. We hypothesise that participants will achieve a progressive change in the stage of change and healthy dietary intake in intervention clusters compared to control clusters
Results:
By December 2024, planned intervention was completed and baseline data was published and data analysis on effectiveness of the intervention is completed and to be published.
Conclusions:
The current study will assess the effectiveness of a stage-matched intervention based on TTM enriching the current knowledge base with new evidence from sedentary office workers in a developing country. Clinical Trial: The study was registered in the Sri Lankan Clinical Trial Registry (Registration No. SLCTR/2020/025; Date 15th December 2020)
Citation
The author of this paper has made a PDF available, but requires the user to login, or create an account.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.