The Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP): History, Evaluation, and Outcomes

Abstract

The Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) is a premier lifestyle intervention targeting chronic disease that has been offered for more than 25 years. The intervention has been used in clinical, corporate, and community settings, and the short-term and long-term clinical benefits of the intervention, as well as its cost-effectiveness, have been documented in more than 25 peer-reviewed publications. Being an easily administered intervention, CHIP has been presented not only by health professionals but also by non-health-trained volunteers. The benefits of the program have been extensively studied under these 2 delivery channels, consistently demonstrating positive outcomes. This article provides a brief history of CHIP and describes the content and structure of the intervention. The published evaluations and outcomes of the intervention are presented and discussed and future directions are highlighted.