Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Employee health promotion--Minnesota--Albert Lea--Evaluation; Employee health promotion--Evaluation; Lifestyles--Health aspects; Minnesota--Albert Lea;

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of a four-week intervention program on the development of healthy lifestyle practices among employees at Albert Lea Medical Center. Specifically, the study was designed to investigate changes in subjects' predicted health risk age after participation in a four-week worksite health promotion program at ALMC. The intervention program consisted of the following wellness components: physical, emotional, occupational, intellectual, spiritual, and social. The study was designed to answer the question of how the "July Challenge" would effect the risk age of each participant.

Health risk appraisals were sent to randomly selected individuals at Albert Lea Medical Center's main hospital campus, all satellite medical clinics, and a long-term care facility. Participants were divided into the three following groups: experienced; who had participated in a similar wellness intervention from February to March, 1999, nonexperienced; individuals who had not participated in any wellness interventions, and control group. Each participant was asked to complete a health risk appraisal form one week prior to the wellness intervention, within one week after the intervention, and finally, a third health risk appraisal nine weeks after the July Challenge was completed. The experienced and non-experienced groups participated in a four-week intervention program which promoted balance and consistent participation in wellness activities from the six areas mentioned above.

A 3 x 3 (Time Period x Group) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to interpret the results of the wellness intervention. The results indicated that the mean risk age for the experienced and non-experienced groups significantly increased across the data collection periods. The mean risk age for the control group remained relatively the same. It is interesting to note that all the risk ages for each participant in the three groups, with the exception of one in the control group, was lower than the actual age of the participant. The reader is provided various explanations for this outcome although more research is recommended.

While the data analysis indicated that the July Challenge wellness intervention had a negative impact on the participant's risk age, research has found that employee wellness programs do indeed have a positive impact on the health of the employees and the corporate "bottom line." It is to the financial benefit of corporate America to support and implement health promotion programs. These programs should include ongoing education and reinforcement to foster continued participation in healthy lifestyle practices. It is a goal of the health promotion professional to increase employees' awareness of how unhealthy lifestyle choices impact their lives. As individuals become more health conscious, they will hopefully make wiser decisions regarding risk factors over which they have control, such as smoking, wearing seat belts, poor nutrition, and so on. A major obstacle facing health promotion specialists is the client's relapse into old habits after wellness interventions are completed.

Year of Submission

2001

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Dennis Cryer

Second Advisor

Thomas M. Davis

Third Advisor

Larry D. Hensley

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2001

Object Description

1 PDF file (70 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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