Completing a worksite health risk assessment correlates with continuing employment, lower health care costs and utilization.

Objectives: Companies that understand the collective health risks of their employees, as well as worker productivity as it relates to health risks can provide more effective and necessary interventions. Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) are an important source of information for understanding overall health risks of a company's employees. However, HRA data tend to represent only a subset of employees, thereby providing employers an incomplete picture of employee health risks.

Participation in the Healthy Rewards Program Predicts Staying Employed, Medical Costs, and Utilization.

Objective: To identify who is participating in the healthy rewards program (HRP), how participation corresponds with employment, and to compare health care costs and utilization between partial and full participants with non-participants.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of employees in a large US company during 2016 to 2019, with statistically significant results reported, adjusted for sex, age, and year.

Results: Women, ages 30 to 59, and those employed in more recent years correspond with higher HRP participation.

Self-rated job performance and absenteeism according to employee engagement, health behaviors, and physical health.

Objective: To better understand the combined influence of employee engagement, health behavior, and physical health on job performance and absenteeism.

Methods: Analyses were based on 20,114 employees who completed the Healthways Well-Being Assessment from 2008 to 2010. Employees represented three geographically dispersed companies in the United States.

Presenteeism according to healthy behaviors, physical health, and work environment.

The objective of this study is to identify the contribution that selected demographic characteristics, health behaviors, physical health outcomes, and workplace environmental factors have on presenteeism (on-the-job productivity loss attributed to poor health and other personal issues). Analyses are based on a cross-sectional survey administered to 3 geographically diverse US companies in 2010. Work-related factors had the greatest influence on presenteeism (eg, too much to do but not enough time to do it, insufficient technological support/resources).

A review of the knowledge base on healthy worksite culture.

Objective: To identify the need for worksite cultures of health, the organizational factors that support worksite cultures of health, the tools that have been used to measure worksite cultures of health, and the research needs related to healthy worksite culture.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving a sample of 500 companies representing a broad spectrum of industries and business sectors. A literature review was conducted.

The Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) for lowering weight and improving psychosocial health.

This study extends previous research evaluating the association between the CHIP intervention, change in body weight, and change in psychological health. A randomized controlled health intervention study lasting 4 wk. was used with 348 participants from metropolitan Rockford, Illinois; ages ranged from 24 to 81 yr.

Effectiveness of a workplace wellness program for maintaining health and promoting healthy behaviors.

This study assessed the effectiveness of a worksite wellness program. A within-group study design was conducted. Assessment was based on 3737 continuously employed workers at a large agribusiness during 2007-2009.

Lowering employee health care costs through the Healthy Lifestyle Incentive Program.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Healthy Lifestyle Incentive Program (HLIP), a worksite health program, on lowering prescription drug and medical costs.

Design: Health care cost data for Salt Lake County employees during 2004 through 2008 were linked with HLIP enrollment status. Additional program information was obtained from a cross-sectional survey administered in 2008.

Evaluation of a best-practice worksite wellness program in a small-employer setting using selected well-being indices.

Objective: To measure the effectiveness of a wellness program in a small company using four well-being indicators designed to measure dimensions of physical health, emotional health, healthy behavior, and basic access to health-related conditions and services.

Methods: Indicator scores were obtained and compared between Lincoln Industries employees and workers in the neighboring Lincoln/Omaha community during 2009.

Results: Nearly all Lincoln Industries employees participated in the wellness program.

The impact of worksite wellness in a small business setting.

Objective: This study evaluates the level of participation and effectiveness of a worksite wellness program in a small business setting.

Methods: Three years of wellness participation and risk data from Lincoln Industries was analyzed.

Results: All Lincoln Industry employees participated in at least some level of wellness programming.

Efficacy of the Berkshire Health System Cardiovascular Health Risk Reduction Program.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the Berkshire Health System Cardiovascular Health Risk Reduction Program.

Methods: A within-group study design was conducted. Analyses were based on 502 employees who completed an initial and follow-up personal health risk assessment.

Consequences of a plant-based diet with low dairy consumption on intake of bone-relevant nutrients.

Objective: This study examines the extent to which a plant-based dietary intervention that discourages consumption of dairy products and meat influences bone-relevant nutrients.

Methods: A randomized controlled study design was used to evaluate the Coronary Health Improvement Project. The Project is a heart disease prevention intervention administered in an intensive 40-hour educational course delivered over a 4-week period.

Improving overall health status through the CHIP intervention.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a coronary heart disease prevention program at improving selected health indicators.

Methods: A randomized controlled health intervention study was used, with 348 participants from metropolitan Rockford, Illinois, followed for 6 months; ages ranged from 24 to 81 years. Health indicators were based on the SF-36v2.

Cardiovascular risk reduction and factors influencing loss to follow-up in the coronary health improvement project.

Background: This study determined whether the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) can improve cardiovascular disease risk factors through one year of follow-up and identified factors influencing loss to follow-up.

Material/methods: The CHIP program, an intensive four week community-based health education intervention designed to improve coronary risk factors, was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design. Analyses were based on 1,712 community volunteers, ages 30 to 87 from the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan area.

Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) is associated with improved nutrient intake and decreased depression.

Objective: We evaluated the efficacy of the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) at lowering depression by modifying selected daily nutrients from food.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was used, with 348 participants 24 to 81 y of age from metropolitan Rockford, Illinois. Participants were assessed at baseline and at 6 wk and 6 mo of follow-up.

C-reactive protein levels according to physical activity and body weight for participants in the coronary health improvement project.

Objectives: To identify whether the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP), an intervention designed to increase physical activity and improve diet, lowers serum C-reactive protein (CRP). The study will also assess whether changes in CRP over the study period are associated with baseline levels of and changes in selected coronary risk factors.

Methods: A randomized controlled study design assigned 348 individuals to the intervention or control group with measurements taken at baseline, 6 weeks, and 6 months of body weight, physical activity, and serum CRP levels.

Can newly acquired healthy behaviors persist? An analysis of health behavior decay.

Introduction: We evaluated data from the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) to determine whether improved health behaviors associated with this intervention persisted or decayed during 18 months of follow-up.

Methods: Participants were 348 volunteers aged 24 to 81 years from the Rockford, Illinois, metropolitan area enrolled in CHIP, a 4-week educational course delivered as lectures. The intervention taught the importance of making better lifestyle choices and improving dietary and physical activity behaviors.

The effects of an intensive lifestyle modification program on carotid artery intima-media thickness: a randomized trial.

Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease on cardiovascular disease as measured by the intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery and compared this effect to outcomes from patients participating in traditional cardiac rehabilitation.

Design: Randomized clinical trial.

The effect of a community-based coronary risk reduction: the Rockford CHIP.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the clinical effects of a community-based lifestyle intervention program in reducing coronary risk, especially in a high risk group.

Method: The 40-hour educational curriculum of the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) delivered over a 30-day period with clinical and nutritional assessments before and after was offered in the spring and fall of 2000 to 2002 through the Center for Complementary Medicine of the Swedish American Health System in Rockford, Illinois to its employees and the general public. The participants were instructed to optimize their diet, quit smoking and exercise daily (walking 30 min/day).

A video-based lifestyle intervention and changes in coronary risk.

If population-wide improvements in nutrition and physical activity behavior are to be made, behavior change interventions must use a variety of media. This study examines whether participation in a facilitator-based video version of the Coronary Health Improvement Project could significantly reduce coronary risk. A total of 28 video classes conducted in worksite, medical and community settings were used to teach 763 middle-aged adults, ages 30-79 years, about healthy lifestyles.

A worksite diabetes prevention program: two-year impact on employee health.

The purpose of this study was to determine the 2-year impact of a worksite-based diabetes prevention program. Thirty-seven pre-diabetic and previously undiagnosed diabetic employees participating in a 12-month worksite diabetes prevention program were included. Weight, body mass index, waist circumference, oral glucose tolerance testing, fasting insulin, blood lipids, and aerobic fitness had improved significantly after 6 months.

Effect of intense lifestyle modification and cardiac rehabilitation on psychosocial cardiovascular disease risk factors and quality of life.

This study examined the effect of the Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on psychosocial risk factors and quality of life in patients with confirmed coronary artery disease. Participants had previously undergone a revascularization procedure. The 84 patients self-selected to participate in the Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease (n = 507 28), CR (n = 28), or a control group (n = 28).

The behavioral and clinical effects of therapeutic lifestyle change on middle-aged adults.

Introduction: Chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes are responsible for most deaths in the United States. Lifestyle factors--poor nutrition, sedentary living, and tobacco use--appear to play a prominent role in the development of many chronic diseases. This study determined the behavioral and clinical impact of a therapeutic lifestyle-modification intervention on a group of community volunteers.

The diabetes prevention program: a worksite experience.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the U.S. National Institutes of Health Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) could be successfully implemented in a worksite setting.

The effects of a worksite chronic disease prevention program.

Objective: This study determined the behavioral and clinical impact of a worksite chronic disease prevention program.

Methods: Working adults participated in randomized clinical trial of an intensive lifestyle intervention. Nutrition and physical activity behavior and several chronic disease risk factors were assessed at baseline, 6 weeks, and 6 months.