Preconception health and wellbeing interventions in the workplace: A systematic review

Background Preconception health status is an important indicator of later health outcomes for mothers and infants. Preconception health promotion strategies are required, as pregnancy may be too late to influence some health behaviors, with impacts on fetal health already established. The workplace has the potential to play an important role in the health and wellbeing of employees and could be an ideal intervention setting in the preconception period. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate workplace interventions designed to improve the health and/or wellbeing of women during preconception. Methods Medline, EMBASE and PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus were systematically searched for relevant studies published between January 2009 and October 2018. Inclusion criteria were interventions involving preconception or pre-pregnancy health, wellbeing or health promotion, and which occurred in the workplace or work organization. Results Two hundred and forty-eight records were retrieved in the search, and four were screened in full text. No eligible studies were identified. We then capitalized on the opportunity to learn from the literature explored during the review screening process to identify areas for consideration in future research and policy agendas for workplace health promotion for preconception women. Conclusions Specific examples of strategies that could be applied in the workplace include legislative changes to reduce smoking, policy directives to improve the food environment and increase physical activity, and the application of electronic health interventions in the workplace. Further research should be undertaken to design, conduct and evaluate interventions to improve preconception health and wellbeing, as well as to improve our understanding of how the workplace might be leveraged for preconception health promotion.