Suchergebnisse

Purpose: To examine changes in organizations' workplace health promotion (WHP) initiatives over time associated with repeated self-assessment using the Well Workplace Checklist (WWC). Design: Well Workplace Checklist data include a convenience sample of US organizations that selected to assess their performance against quality WHP benchmarks. Setting: Workplaces. Subjects: In total, 577 US organizations completed the WWC in 2 or more years from 2008 to 2015. Measures: The WWC is a 100-item organizational assessment that measures performance against the original set of quality benchmarks that were established by the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA). Analysis: This study examined changes in overall WWC scores as well as 7 separate benchmark scores. Multilevel modeling was used to examine changes in scores associated with repeated assessments, controlling for the year of assessment and organizational characteristics. Results: There were significant increases in overall WWC scores (β = 2.93, P < .001) associated with the repeated WWC assessments, after controlling for organizational characteristics. All 7 benchmark scores had significant increases associated with reassessment. Compared to other benchmarks, operating plan (β = 6.18, P < .001) and evaluation (β = 4.91, P < .001) scores increased more with each reassessment. Conclusion: Continued reassessment may represent more commitment to and investment in WHP initiatives which could lead to improved quality. Other factors that may positively influence changes in performance against benchmarks include company size, access to outside resources for WHP, and a history with implementing WHP.

Purpose. This study aimed to examine college student physical activity promotion. Design. A cross-sectional approach to qualitative research was used. Setting. Southeastern state university system. Participants. Fourteen of 15 (93%) universities recruited were included in this study; 22 university employees participated in a semistructured interview. Method. Nonprobabilistic purposive and snowball sampling strategies were used to recruit individuals who were likely to be engaged in physical activity promotion efforts on their respective campuses. Thematic analyses lead to the identification of emerging themes that were coded and analyzed using NVivo software. Results. Themes informed three main areas: key personnel responsible for promoting physical activity to students, actual physical activity promotion efforts implemented, and factors that influence student physical activity promotion. Results suggest that ecological approaches to promote physical activity on college campuses are underused, the targeting of mediators of physical activity in college students is limited, and values held by university administration influence campus physical activity promotion. Conclusion. Findings support recommendations for future research and practice. Practitioners should attempt to implement social ecological approaches that target scientifically established mediators of physical activity in college students. Replication of this study is needed to compare these findings with other types of universities, and to investigate the relationship between promotion activities (type and exposure) and physical activity behaviors of college students.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to quantify the performance of organizations' worksite health promotion (WHP) activities against the benchmarking criteria included in the Well Workplace Checklist (WWC). Design: The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) developed a tool to assess WHP with its 100-item WWC, which represents WELCOA's 7 performance benchmarks. Setting: Workplaces. Participants: This study includes a convenience sample of organizations who completed the checklist from 2008 to 2015. The sample size was 4643 entries from US organizations. Measures: The WWC includes demographic questions, general questions about WHP programs, and scales to measure the performance against the WELCOA 7 benchmarks. Analysis: Descriptive analyses of WWC items were completed separately for each year of the study period. Results: The majority of the organizations represented each year were multisite, multishift, medium- to large-sized companies mostly in the services industry. Despite yearly changes in participating organizations, results across the WELCOA 7 benchmark scores were consistent year to year. Across all years, benchmarks that organizations performed the lowest were senior-level support, data collection, and programming; wellness teams and supportive environments were the highest scoring benchmarks. Conclusion: In an era marked with economic swings and health-care reform, it appears that organizations are staying consistent in their performance across these benchmarks. The WWC could be useful for organizations, practitioners, and researchers in assessing the quality of WHP programs.