Steering Committee enhancements on health promotion program delivery

Health ambassadors in the workplace: a health promotion intervention mobilizing middle managers and RE-AIM evaluation of outcomes

Background

The workplace provides an ideal setting for health promotion, as adults spend most of their day at work. Middle managers hold a strategic position to lead workplace health promotion. This study evaluates the outcomes of an intensive intervention training middle managers to promote health in the workplace.

Methods

A workshop was designed and conducted to train female middle management employees to construct, implement, and evaluate a health promotion program in their workplace. Semi-structured interviews were carried out post-intervention to assess workplace health promotion outcomes according to the RE-AIM framework, and identify variables contributing to success. Additionally, questionnaires were distributed pre and post-program assessing personal health and self-efficacy changes.

Results

Eighteen participants from 13 government offices, who serve 19,560 employees, completed the training course. Nine workplaces had workplace health promotion programs in progress 12 months after the course had ended, of which 8 made health promotion changes in organizational policy. Workplace RE-AIM scores showed that 8 workplaces were high or partial performers, and 5 were low or non-performers. Factors that increased the likelihood of successful interventions included management support, steering committee, comprehensive programming, conducting a needs assessment and flexibility in program implementation in the presence of challenges. Post course, participants reported increased health knowledge related to workplace health promotion (p < 0.001), and increased health promotion self-efficacy (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Training and continued guidance of middle managers resulted in the design and successful implementation of workplace health promotion interventions. A RE-AIM based assessment was found to be an effective method for evaluating multi-content workplace health promotion programs.

Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, https://www.clinicaltrials.gov, registration number:

NCT03295136, registration date: 24/09/2017.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11609-8.

We're working hard, but is it hardly working? Why process is critical in the delivery of worksite health promotion programs

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the relationship between the process and outcomes of worksite wellness committees (WWCs) implementing worksite health promotion programs at PPG Industries, Inc.

METHODS

We developed two unique tools to understand how WWCs function and to assess their program implementation. We then analyzed survey data from 65 PPG worksites, measuring process and program implementation.

RESULTS

Worksites that scored higher on the process indicator had more robust program implementation.

CONCLUSIONS

The WWCs need increased attention from researchers and evaluators. Employers should consider administering worksite health promotion structural assessments to identify gaps in management support and program implementation that may influence program effectiveness.

Factors related to participatory employee advisory boards in small, blue-collar worksites

PURPOSE

To identify factors related to formation, participation, and characteristics of employee advisory boards (EABs) in blue-collar worksites.

DESIGN

This study used a nonexperimental qualitative design to assess EAB formation, activity, and enthusiasm levels and examined those factors relative to employee participation in worksite-wide health promotion activities.

SETTING

Twenty-two blue-collar worksites with a total of 113 EAB members in the greater Seattle area.

SUBJECTS

Individuals who agreed to serve on EABs in the intervention worksites.

INTERVENTION

Participants received training in involving employees in the 5-A-Day project intervention activities.

MEASURES

Measures include type of worksite, number of EAB members, method of EAB recruitment, and variables describing EAB functioning, including attendance at meetings, assistance at project activities, and level of enthusiasm.

RESULTS

All worksites formed EABs. There was no association between the way the EAB was formed and subsequent EAB attendance at meetings, participation in project activities, representativeness of the EAB, or level of EAB enthusiasm. Enthusiasm of the EAB was associated with employee participation, and EABs with a higher level of enthusiasm showed more participation by employees than worksites with less enthusiastic EABs.

CONCLUSIONS

It is possible to develop participatory structures in small, blue-collar worksites. More information is needed about factors related to levels of enthusiasm of EABs.

Population-based tobacco control: progress and prospects

One in four U.S. adults smokes. Downstream cognitive-behavioral interventions coupled with effective pharmacotherapy can produce 40% quit rates, particularly for those least addicted, most highly motivated, and without psychiatric comorbidity. Effective midstream school-based prevention activities delay youth use. Worksite programs and physician "quit smoking" advice can be cost-effective, although these are not sufficiently widespread. Community strategies show promise of preventing youth use and helping addicted users quit. Despite failed federal tobacco control legislation, great strides have been made upstream, including proposed regulation of nicotine as a drug, the state master settlement agreement with the tobacco industry, and excise tax increases funding statewide tobacco control programs. Wider dissemination of effective programs and better coordination with upstream policies hold great potential to significantly reduce future use rates and related disease.

Take Heart II: replication of a worksite health promotion trial

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a revised worksite health promotion program that featured an employee steering committee/menu approach to intervention. The "Take Heart II" program was evaluated using a quasi-experimental matched-pair design with worksite as the unit of analysis. Experimental and control worksites did not differ on baseline organizational or employee demographic variables or on baseline levels of dependent variables. Outcome and process results revealed consistent, but modest effects favoring intervention worksites on most measures. Cross-sectional analyses generally failed to produce statistically significant intervention effects, but cohort analyses revealed significant beneficial effects of the Take Heart II intervention on eating patterns, behavior change attempts, and perceived social support. Neither analysis detected a beneficial effect of intervention on cholesterol levels.