The Working Healthy Project: A worksite health-promotion trial targeting physical activity, diet, and smoking

Worksites are a key channel for delivery of interventions designed to reduc e chronic disease among adult populations. Although some evaluations of wor ksite physical-activity interventions have been conducted, to date very few randomized trials of worksite health promotion have included the goal of i ncreasing physical-activity levels as part of a comprehensive multiple risk factor approach to worksite health promotion. This article presents the re sults regarding behavior change found among the cohort of 2055 individuals who completed three health-behavior assessments as part of their worksites' participation in The Working Healthy Project (WHP), a multiple risk factor intervention implemented in 26 manufacturing worksites. In this study a ra ndomized matched-pair design was used. Fifty-one percent (n = 2,761) of the employees who completed the baseline assessment also completed the interim survey. Eight-three percent of those who completed the interim assessment also completed the final survey. The WHP intervention targeted smoking, nut rition, and physical activity. At baseline, 38% of the sample reported enga ging in regular exercise, and subjects reported consuming an average of 2.7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, 7.9 grams of fiber per 1000 kil ocalories, and 35.4% calories from fat per day: 28% of the sample were smok ers. By the time of both the interim, (intervention midpoint) and final (en d of intervention) assessments, participants in the intervention condition had significantly increased their exercise behavior, compared with the cont rol condition. There was also increased consumption of fruits and vegetable s and fiber in the intervention condition by the time of the final assessme nt, compared with the control condition. No differences by condition were f ound with regard to percentage of calories from fat consumed or smoking ces sation. These results suggest that among a cohort of participants in a work site health promotion study, there were significant health behavior changes across two risk factors over time. These data suggest that further investi gation of multiple risk factor worksite health promotion is warranted, part icularly with a focus on ways to increase participation in these programs a nd to diffuse intervention effects throughout the entire workforce.