THE WORKING WELL TRIAL - BASE-LINE DIETARY AND SMOKING BEHAVIORS OF EMPLOYEES AND RELATED WORKSITE CHARACTERISTICS

Background. The Working Well Trial, the largest randomized worksite he alth promotion trial to date, tests the effects of cancer prevention a nd control interventions on dietary and smoking behaviors of employees and the worksite environment. The trial is a 5-year cooperative agree ment conducted in 57 matched pairs of worksites in 16 states by four s tudy centers, a coordinating center, and the National Cancer Institute . The dual aims of this paper are to: (a) present a baseline descripti on of the dietary and smoking habits of 20,801 employees, who are pred ominantly blue-collar workers; and (b) describe the social and physica l environments of their worksites that may facilitate or hinder health behavior changes. Methods. The self-administered baseline survey of i ndividuals consisted of a core set of questions common across all stud y centers on diet and smoking. The organizational survey consisted to eight instruments administered via interviews with key informants in e ach worksite. Continuous variables were analyzed by a mixed linear mod el and binary data were analyzed by the Generalized Estimating Equatio n. Results. The population represented is largely male (67.5%) and blu e collar (53.5%). Mean levels of fat and fiber intakes were close to t he national averages (36.6% of calories as fat and 13.1 g of fiber). S moking prevalence (25.2%) was slightly lower than the national average . The worksites had a high level of health promotion activites (42% ha d nutrition programs, 53% had smoking control programs), but lacked en vironmental support for dietary behavior change and perceived support for smoking cessation. Conclusions. These findings replicate and exten d previous research results to a large sample of diverse, largely blue -collar worksites. In addition the baseline results lay a foundation f or the development of new insight into the relationship between indivi dual and organizational level variables that may interact to influence behavioral and cultural norms. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.