Who comes to a workplace health risk assessment?

Workplace health promotion initiatives have proliferated, but there are dif ficulties in recruiting employees of lower socioeconomic status and at high er risk of disease. A survey of health behaviors and attitudes was administ ered in 20 worksites and the opportunity to attend a health risk assessment promoted. Those more likely to attend were women, those of higher occupati onal prestige, and those from a non-English-speaking background. After adju stment for these variables, the only health behavior associated with attend ance was smoking status. Perceived risk of lung cancer was significant, eve n after adjustment for smoking status. Stage of readiness to change health behaviors was associated with attendance, with those in the preparation sta ge being more likely to attend than those in the precontemplation stage. Ho wever, this association was statistically significant only for fruit and ve getable consumption. There was no relation between attendance and support f or health promotion, perceived general health, or other perceived risk of d isease. These findings suggest that additional risk communication strategie s and environmental supports are required to involve those with less presti gious occupations.