[Online Health Services for the Prevention of Stress-associated Psychological Impairments at the Workplace]

Objective: The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of the evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of online health services for the prevention of stress-associated psychological impairments at the workplace. Methods: The databases EMBASE, PubMed and PsycINFO were systematically searched for English, French and German references. Included were RCTs that examined the influence of online health services on stress-associated impairment in adult employees at the workplace. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist was used for quality appraisal. Results: Out of 5 632 identified references, 13 RCTs were included in this study. The intervention approaches included movement and relaxation exercises, imparting of knowledge, cognitive-behavioral/social-behavioral interventions, risk communication, health coaching, mindfulness training, and career identity training. In 4 RCTs among mainly white collar employees, the interventions led to improvements in stress-associated outcomes (2 RCTs of high, one of medium and one of low quality level). 9 further RCTs (5 of them of a medium and 4 of a low quality level) did not show a beneficial intervention effect. Conclusion: There are effective health services for the prevention of stress-associated psychological impairments at the workplace. A final conclusion on the kind of intervention that is effective cannot be drawn due to the limited number of RCTs using various intervention approaches. Interventions of at least 12 weeks and a combination of multiple approaches were more often effective.