Discover wellness: A worksite wellness program for higher education

Abstract

Sixty percent of adults in the United States suffer from chronic disease. Worksite wellness programs that target at-risk populations have positive health benefits. Discover Wellness: Find a Healthier You (DW) is a worksite wellness program intended to improve the higher education employee health by providing an opportunity for participants to learn and practice healthy behaviors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate DW program impact on employee behavior change to reduce chronic disease risk. This study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design that assessed self-efficacy and health behaviors of employees of a state university in the northeast United States. Participants experienced significant improvement in stress (t23 =-31.602, p < 0.001), nutrition (t21 =-36.313, p < 0.001), physical activity (t22 =-34.380, p < 0.001), and sleep (t23 =-18.450, p < 0.001). Additionally, anecdotes from participants revealed themes of comradery and reflection on health behaviors.