# Barriers and Facilitators of Implementing a Healthy Lifestyle Intervention at Workplaces in South Africa

## TL;DR

This study explores what helps or hinders healthy lifestyle programs in South African workplaces, focusing on employee and manager perspectives.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into barriers and facilitators specific to South African workplace settings for implementing lifestyle interventions.

## Key findings

- Incentives, education, and workplace support were key facilitators for managers.
- Health and longevity were the main motivators for employees.
- Time constraints and lack of self-discipline were major barriers identified.

## Abstract

Current evidence indicates that workplace health and wellness programmes provide numerous benefits concerning altering cardiovascular risk factor profiles. Implementing health programmes at workplaces provide an opportunity to engage adults towards positive and sustainable lifestyle choices. The first step in designing lifestyle interventions for the workplace is understanding the barriers and facilitators to implementing interventions in these settings. The barriers and facilitators to implementing lifestyle interventions in the workplace environment was qualitatively explored at two multinational consumer goods companies among seven workplaces in South Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with ten workplace managers. Five focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted among workplace employees. The IDI findings revealed that the main facilitators for participation in a lifestyle intervention programme were incentives and rewards, educational tools, workplace support, and engaging lessons. In contrast, the main facilitator of the FGDs was health and longevity. The main barriers from the IDIs included scheduling time for lifestyle interventions within production schedules at manufacturing sites, whereas time limitations, a lack of willpower and self-discipline were the main barriers identified from the FGDs. The findings of this study add to literature on the barriers and facilitators of implementing healthy lifestyle interventions at workplaces and suggest that there is a potential for successfully implementing intervention programmes to improve health outcomes, provided that such efforts are informed and guided through the engagement of workplace stakeholders, an assessment of the physical and food environment, and the availability of workplace resources.