Structural predictors of adherence to physical activity at the workplace: A systematic overview

Background The success of corporate wellness programmes depends on the participation rate. The success rate of programmes with physical activity usually lies between 25.8 % and 29.2 %. This rate is influenced by demographic, work-related and health-related determinants as well as structural programme characteristics. The aim of this review is to evaluate the structure of workplace and structural programme characteristics that are appropriate for creating a high participation rate in corporate physical activity programmes. Methods A systematic search of literature was carried out in the databases pubmed, sportdiscus, cinahl, embase, medline and business source premier. 47 studies were selected and evaluated. The quality as well as the adherence data was assessed with emphasis on different topics. Results The methodological quality of the evaluated studies is not very high. Only a few studies examine the adherence to physical activity as primary outcome. Several different methods for measuring, operationalizing and defining adherence were applied by the investigated studies. The results are thus; inconsistent. Moreover there is lack of randomised controlled trails comparing different structures of companies and programme characteristics. Nevertheless, the influence of structural predictors on adherence in corporate physical activity programmes can be confirmed. Discussion There is need to standardize adherence research and carry out randomised controlled trials in order to evaluate the effects of structural predictors on adherence to physical activity in the corporate setting. It is important to find strategies of increasing long-term-adherence in order to achieve maximum success of corporate physical activity programmes