EFFECT OF HEALTH RISK APPRAISAL ON HEALTH OUTCOMES IN A UNIVERSITY WORKSITE HEALTH PROMOTION TRIAL

Data from a 1-year worksite health promotion trial were examined to as sess the effect of a health promotion intervention and health risk app raisal (HRA) on health behavior and health status indicators among uni versity employees. Forty-one departments (N = 2198) were randomly assi gned to receive: (1) a health promotion intervention and a HRA, (2) th e intervention only, (3) the risk appraisal only or (4) neither, After controlling for age, race, gender, job category and the appropriate b aseline measure, group assignment was used to predict total cholestero l level, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, exercise frequency, an d body mass index (BMI) among 801 employees who completed both baselin e and follow-up assessment. Receipt of the combination of the interven tion and the risk appraisal or each component separately resulted in s ignificantly lower systolic blood pressure and BMI.