Objective  To evaluate intervention effect of intensive brisk walking prescription on obesity in Chinese occupational population and to provide a reference for popularizing appropriate weight control program among occupational population in China.

  Methods  All the participants of the study were from a 100-day vigorous walking program conducted among 31 528 in service employees in 12 provincial-level administrative divisions of China during May – August 2021 and the participants were divided into an intervention group required to complete a 4 sets of walking schedule in a day (10, 10, 15, 15 minutes of walking continuously at the speed of 100 – 150 steps per minute) and a positive control group with the same requirement as the intervention group but only 3 sets of waling schedule (10, 10, 15 minutes); the body weight in kg (BW) of the participants were measured at least once a week during the program period. From the 28 285 participants with complete information on baseline questionnaire survey and data on physical examination and vigorous waling, 5 208 pairs of intervention and control individuals were matched by tendency scores. The changes in BW, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference in cm (WC), hip circumference in cm (HC) and body fat rate in % (BFR) of the intervention and control individuals before and after the intervention were compared to evaluate the effect of intensive brisk walking prescription on the obesity indicators.

  Results  For both the intervention and positive control group, the percentages and the 25th percentiles of the proportions of individuals having 10 000 steps walking per day, group walking, completing 4/3 sets of walking schedule, and BW measuring once a week were all more than 85%, indicating a good compliance with the program of the participants. Compared to those at the beginning of the intervention program, there were significant differences at the end of the intervention for both the intervention and the positive control groups in the average values of BW (64.18 ± 11.50 vs. 65.98 ± 11.86 and 63.86 ± 11.58 vs. 65.23 ± 11.87), BMI (23.18 ± 3.16 vs. 23.77 ± 3.29 and 23.31 ± 3.19 vs. 23.78 ± 3.30), WC (81.33 ± 10.05 vs. 82.75 ± 10.25 and 81.09 ± 9.99 vs. 82.54 ± 10.14), HC (95.16 ± 6.88 vs. 96.15 ± 7.37 and 94.97 ± 6.70 vs. 96.06 ± 7.17), and BFR (26.89 ± 6.11 vs. 27.92 ± 6.18 and 27.00 ± 6.29 vs. 27.75 ± 6.37), respectively (all P < 0.01). The BW of the intensive intervention group was significantly higher than that of positive control group at the beginning of the intervention (t = – 3.25, P = 0.0012). The results of covariance analysis showed that the BW, BMI and BFR of the intensive intervention group were significantly lower than those of positive control group by the end of intervention (all P < 0.01). After adjusting confounding factors such as sex, age, residence, education, occupation, chronic disease, score for knowledge about chronic disease, psychological scale score and sleeping time, the results of multilevel model combined with multiple difference method revealed a higher decline of 0.29% in BFR of intensive intervention group compared to that of positive control group at the end of intensive intervention (t = – 2.05, P = 0.04). Further subgroup analysis demonstrated that the intensive intervention promoted the decrease of BW, BMI and BFR for the individuals with the BMI indicating overweight status, the decrease of BMI and BFR for the individuals with the BMI indicating obesity status, and the decrease of BFR for the individuals with the BMI indicating both overweight or obesity at the beginning of the intervention.

  Conclusion  The short-term intensive intervention with four sets of vigorous walking schedule could reduce obesity indicators among overweight and obese in service employees in China, especially for the decline of body fat rate.