Colleges and universities should give more broad-based attention to health and wellness-at all levels

Prevalence and characteristics of campus-based employee wellness programs among United States accredited colleges and universities

BACKGROUND

Employee wellness programs (EWPs) aim to support positive changes in employees' modifiable behavioral health risk factors for disease prevention and management.

OBJECTIVE

This study described the prevalence and characteristics of EWPs in US accredited college and university campuses.

METHODS

Identification of the prevalence of EWPs and programming activities offered in 3039 accredited higher education institutions/campuses, and characteristics of these institutions/campuses were conducted, mainly through searching the institution's web page.

RESULTS

Overall, 36%of the institutions/campuses offered EWPs, with a significantly larger percentage of 4-year public colleges/universities providing EWPs and wellness programming activities than the 4-year private colleges/universities and community colleges. When limiting the institutions/campuses to 4-year colleges and universities with at least 500 employees, the percentage of these institutions/campuses offering EWPs increased to 57.7%, which was comparable to the findings in the literature. The percentage of the institutions/campuses offering wellness programming activities ranged from 18.1%for injury prevention and ergonomics to 30.2%for stress management. The percentage of institutions/campuses offering injury prevention and ergonomics was significantly lower than the percentage of institutions/campuses offering other typical wellness activities.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of EWPs offered in accredited college and university campuses do not meet the national goal of 75%, which was set by Healthy People 2010.

Differences in university students' motivation between a required and an elective physical activity education policy

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to examine differences in students' physical activity motivation, competence, and weekly exercise metabolic equivalent units (METs) between universities with different physical activity education (PAE) policy arrangements (ie, a required PAE vs. an elective PAE).

PARTICIPANTS

Participants (N = 953) were purposefully recruited from two universities with different PAE policies 1 week before the start of fall term 2015.

METHODS

Participants completed questionnaires assessing their physical activity motivation, competence, and weekly exercise METs.

RESULTS

The results of this study suggest that having a required PAE policy allows for more students with lower self-determined forms of motivation (ie, amotivation) to be reached in comparison to the elective PAE policy.

CONCLUSIONS

This finding highlights that a primary value of having a required PAE policy is its ability to reach less motivated students.

Status of personal health requirement for graduation at institutions of higher education in the United States

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to examine the proportion of higher education institutions in the United States that require a personal health course (PHC) for graduation and to describe the nature of such requirements. Participants: This study included a random sample of public and private institutions of higher education (IHE) with undergraduate programs within the United States (N = 310). Data were collected between September 2014 and May 2015.

METHODS

University catalogs were accessed from the institutions' public Web sites to determine whether a PHC was offered, and whether it was exclusively or optionally required for graduation.

RESULTS

The majority (55.8%) of the sample offered at least 1 PHC, with only 10% exclusively requiring the course and an additional 10% optionally required the course.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the utility of undergraduate students completing a PHC is clear, the majority of institutions do not require such a course for degree conferral.

Toward a greater understanding of the syndemic nature of hypokinetic diseases

Physical activity participation has historically been conceptualized at the individual level with a strong emphasis on apparently healthy people. However, in the latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century, a paradigm shift emerged whereby physical activity participation increasingly was acknowledged to be dependent on factors residing beyond an individual's control, with programming and intervention efforts necessary across the lifespan, in multiple settings, and under various life circumstances. This shifting emphasis has created opportunities and challenges for those involved in physical activity program delivery and research. In this presentation, physical activity behavior change, promotion, and retention efforts will be reviewed and critiqued. Emerging from this critical analysis is an understanding of the syndemic nature of hypokinetic diseases (i.e., the diseases associated with disuse and physical inactivity). The term syndemics is used to account for the interplay and synergistic nature of person, place, and timing in the development of disease. Not only are individual lifestyle behaviors and social factors considered in syndemics, but so too are the forces that link those causes together. To genuinely affect change among the masses, those involved in delivering physical activity interventions and programming must not only address each lifestyle behavior and social affliction that contributes to hypokinetic diseases, but also to the social and environmental forces that link those causes together (e.g., stigma, unequal access to resources).

Changing organizational culture: using the CEO cancer gold standard policy initiatives to promote health and wellness at a school of public health

Background

Worksite wellness initiatives for health promotion and health education have demonstrated effectiveness in improving employee health and wellness. We examined the effects of a multifaceted health promotion campaign on organizational capacity to meet requirements to become CEO Cancer Gold Standard Accredited.

Methods

We conducted an online survey to assess perceived organizational values and support for the five CEO Cancer Gold Standard Pillars for cancer prevention: tobacco cessation; physical activity; nutrition; cancer screening and early detection; and accessing information on cancer clinical trials. Baseline and follow-up surveys were sent 6-months apart to faculty, staff, and students at a school of public health to test the impact of a multifaceted health promotion campaign on perceived organizational change. Descriptive analyses were used to characterize percent improvement. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to control for participants’ university status.

Results

The current organizational culture highly supported tobacco cessation at both time points. Significant improvements (p < .05) from baseline to follow-up were observed for questions measuring organizational values for ‘prevention, screening, and early detection of cancer’ and ‘accessing cancer treatment and clinical trials’.

Conclusions

Health promotion and education efforts using multiple approaches were effective to improve perceived organizational values and support for cancer prevention and early detection, and increase access to information about cancer clinical trials. Future studies are needed to examine broader impacts of implementing worksite health promotion initiatives.

Process evaluation of Project WebHealth: a nondieting Web-based intervention for obesity prevention in college students

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the motivational effect of the Project WebHealth study procedures and intervention components on weight-related health behavior changes in male and female college students.

DESIGN

Process evaluation.

SETTING

Eight universities in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS

Project WebHealth participants (n = 653; 29% men).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Participants rated motivational effects of study procedures and intervention components. Participants were grouped into outcome-based health behavior categories based on achievement of desired targets for fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and/or body weight.

ANALYSIS

Differences in motivation from each procedure and component were analyzed by gender- and outcome-based health behavior category.

RESULTS

Women were generally more motivated than men. Compared to those who did not meet any target health behaviors, men with improved health outcomes (68%) were significantly more motivated by the skills to fuel the body lesson, goal setting, and research snippets. Their female counterparts (63%) were significantly more motivated by the lessons on body size and eating enjoyment, and by the suggested weekly activities.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Specific study procedures and components of Project WebHealth motivated study participants to improve their weight-related health behaviors, and they differed by gender. Findings support the need for gender-tailored interventions in this population.

Historical perspective and current status of the physical education graduation requirement at American 4-year colleges and universities

This study gives an overview of the history of required physical education in America's 4 year colleges and universities and provides an update on the requirement status. After randomly identifying 354 institutions, we searched their respective websites to determine whether physical education was a requirement to earn a baccalaureate degree. The major finding was that the physical education requirement declined from an all-time high of 97% in the 1920s and 1930s to an all-time low of 39.55% in 2010. Given society's ongoing health challenges and the important role of physical activity in maintaining health, this seems counterintuitive. It is also inconsistent with the National Physical Activity Plan (2010).

Psychometric Properties of the Wellness Questionnaire for Higher Education

The wellness model is applied widely by student counselling and development practitioners in South Africa. Its holistic focus is inclusive of physical, intellectual, social, environmental, occupational, financial, emotional and spiritual dimensions of individual development. It is used for individual counselling and also to conceptualise student needs in order to plan for student counselling and development group interventions. However, no standardized measures of wellness exist for South African use. The Wellness Questionnaire for Higher Education (WQHE) was developed in response to this assessment deficiency. This article describes the psychometric properties of the WQHE as evidenced to date. The overall findings in terms of the various psychometric properties investigated confirm that (i) wellness is an observable and measureable behaviour, and (ii) the WQHE adequately operationalises the wellness model for South African students of Higher Education across gender, language and academic year level groups — thereby providing users with a valid and reliable indication of their levels of wellness.

A collaborative university model for employee wellness

Universities are taking a more active approach in understanding and monitoring employees' modifiable health risk factors and chronic care conditions by developing strategies to encourage employees to start and sustain healthy behaviors. WellBama, the University of Alabama's signature health and wellness program, utilizes a collaborative model in partnership with select colleges and departments to implement strategies to improve employees' health status. The program provides onsite health screenings and assessments, timely health advising sessions, assistance in setting and monitoring individual health goals to promote improved health, and preventive examination referrals.

Obesity and Food Choices Among Faculty and Staff at a Large Urban University

OBJECTIVE

in order to address increasing health care costs associated with obesity, this study sought to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity and examine eating behaviors, food choices, health beliefs, and attitudes of university employees.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

an online survey was distributed to > 3,800 faculty and staff at a large public metropolitan university in Winter 2008.

RESULTS

almost half (48%) of 806 respondents were classified as overweight or obese. Compared to those with normal weights, overweight and obese respondents consumed fewer fruits and vegetables (p < .05), were less confident in making healthful food choices (p < .001), and were more influenced by food choices available in on-campus dining facilities (p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

obesity among university employees warrants attention. Because these employees have less self-efficacy and consume less healthful diets than their normal weight colleagues, universities need to improve on-campus access to healthful foods.