Evaluation of a health education program conducted after annual health checkups for employees of small and medium-sized companies

The objective of this study was to evaluate a low-intensity health education program conducted after health checkups on employees of small- and medium-sized companies. Subjects were 517,546 (male: 353,708, female: 163,838) employees who underwent health checkups 6 times consecutively between 1994 and 1999. Health education was provided for employees who had at least one abnormal value in the health checkups. Health nurses provided health education for about 20 min once a year. The percentages of employees who needed medical treatment in terms of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or diabetes were significantly lower among employees who participated in health education more than 4 times than those who participated in health education less than 3 times. This study has suggested that even a low-intensity health education program conducted after annual health checkups for employees of small and medium-sized companies is effective when conducted annually.