Stress level, health behaviors, and quality of life in employees joining a wellness center.

Purpose: Examine the relationship between stress level and quality of life at a worksite wellness center.

Design: A survey completed when joining the wellness center. Setting . Employee wellness center.

Subjects: Survey that inquired about stress, health behaviors, and quality of life of more than 13,000 employees joining a wellness center.

Measures: A series of questions about current health status and health behaviors.

Analysis: Two-sample t-tests assuming unequal variances.

Results: A total of 2147 of these employees reported having high stress levels. Employees with high stress levels had statistically significant lower quality of life, more fatigue, and poorer health compared with employees with low stress levels. In terms of their ability and motivation to participate in wellness programs, the high-stress employees were also less active and had less healthy nutritional habits, less support, and less confidence in their ability to be active. They also reported having more health problems, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, and overweight.

Conclusions: It appears that employees with high stress levels--those who might most benefit from participation in wellness programs--may experience the greatest difficulty participating actively in wellness programs because of their lack of support, low confidence, and numerous health problems. Perhaps offering tailored stress reduction programs for these employees would be beneficial.