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Wellness Program at the Workplace Promotes Healthy Eating Lifestyle: Analysis of Employee Wellness Data in a Longitudinal Retrospective Study
Author(s) -
Soliman Ghada A.,
Kim Jungyoon,
Lee JungMin,
High Robin,
Wehbi Nizar K,
Canedy James T.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.674.32
Subject(s) - mcnemar's test , medicine , consumption (sociology) , environmental health , healthy eating , gerontology , food intake , psychology , physical activity , physical therapy , social science , statistics , mathematics , sociology
A majority of work places offers wellness programs to their employees. To determine the effectiveness of wellness programs in improving participants’ behavior towards healthy choices; we investigated the impact of Nebraska‐based Wellness Programs on employees’ consumption of food groups. Methods Workplace wellness health‐risk questionnaires were collected from 16153 employees who participated in Nebraska‐based wellness programs across several organizations for three years during 2004 through 2013. Changes in intakes of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain from their first to the third year were compared among participants to determine the impact of the wellness programs on desirable behavior towards healthier food choices. McNemar test was used to compute the p‐values for the paired data. Results The percentage of employees who increased their consumption of fruits (14%) was significantly greater than the percentage of those who decreased their intake (10%, p<0.001). Similarly, the percentage of participants who showed a desirable behavioral change in increasing vegetable intake (14%) was significantly greater than the percentage of participants who showed an undesirable behavioral change (10%, p<0.001). Additionally, the percentage of participants who increased their consumption of dark green leafy vegetables (12%) was also significantly greater than that of those who decreased their intake (7%, p<0.001). There was a slight difference between the percentage of participants in regards to the number of servings of grains (5% versus 6%, p<0.001). However, the percentage of participants who increased their intake of whole grains (15%) was significantly greater than percentage of participants who consumed mainly refined grains (11%, p<0.001). Conclusions The Wellness management program has positive impact on increasing the number of participants who select healthier food choices such as increasing the intake of fruits, vegetables, dark green vegetables, and whole grains in a 3‐year follow‐up program.