Work package 5: Intervention study

The IT-supported health platform developed in the project will be implemented on board the ships and tested in the framework of an intervention study.

In work package 5 an intervention study on board with testing of the e-health platform on the four selected ships is carried out in a prospective design. The e-healthy ship-IT developed in the previous work packages (see work package 2, work package 3, work package 4) will be installed on all ships and will be freely available to nautical officers during the survey period. The first step is an intensive introduction to the e-health platform of both a superintendent of the shipping company, who is responsible for the general briefing of newly signing captains, and all nautical officers of the four ships (by the examiners on board).

Subsequently, the e-health platform will be used and tested for 10 months by the captain, the nautical officers (primarily the health officer). Problems or change requests at the e-health platform are passed on to the partner Hanseaticsoft already during the intervention period directly and a prompt solution in the sense of a process evaluation is compiled.

All crew members are interviewed in the intervention study to assess their lifestyle behaviour (nutrition, sport, sleep and ergonomics) and their level of knowledge on health issues. This is done on board by an occupational physician and psychologist for about 7 days per ship.

In the following 10-month intervention interval, the developed health training modules (see work package 4) are carried out regularly and relevant health topics are presented on board via a centrally accessible, permanently installed PC (preferably in the crew and officer mess) in the form of a suitable intervention (e.g. knowledge quiz; multiple-choice question during lunch with subsequent resolution e.g. for dinner, cartoons or motivation-enhancing competition).

Furthermore, the crew receives specific information, e.g. about the current ship position, the expected time of arrival at the next port as well as information about the logistics and infrastructure of the following port. Due to the culturally sensitive navigation-related design of the health intervention (e.g. knowledge quiz) and the high relevance of the information presented for leisure planning in the next port, a great interest of the ship crew in this intervention measure is expected.

In addition, two of the four merchant ships will offer a healthier diet through a wider selection and visually appealing presentation of healthy food (nudging approach) in the interests of situational prevention on board.