A participatory integrated health promotion and protection worksite intervention

Abstract

Our objectivewas to describe and evaluate an innovative approach to combining worksite wellness and ergonomics, with an emphasis on retention and absenteeism during the intervention. The study enrolled 280 employee participants in a 3-year cluster randomized, controlled trial conducted at The University of Iowa, 5 local businesses, and 1 regional business. Our results showed a 90% retention rate with lower estimated absenteeism (although not statistically significant) in the intervention group compared with the control group. This type of highly interactive and integrated short intervention has the capacity to result in high levels of participation with the potential to reduce absenteeism.