Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS

aims: Poor health and well-being has been observed among NHS staff and has become a key focus in current public health policy. The objective of this study was to deliver and evaluate a five-year employee wellness programme aimed at improving the health and well-being of employees in a large NHS wor...

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Main Authors: Blake, Holly, Zhou, Dingyuan, Batt, Mark E.
Format: Article
Published: SAGE 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39278/
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author Blake, Holly
Zhou, Dingyuan
Batt, Mark E.
author_facet Blake, Holly
Zhou, Dingyuan
Batt, Mark E.
author_sort Blake, Holly
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description aims: Poor health and well-being has been observed among NHS staff and has become a key focus in current public health policy. The objective of this study was to deliver and evaluate a five-year employee wellness programme aimed at improving the health and well-being of employees in a large NHS workplace. method: A theory-driven multi-level ecological workplace wellness intervention was delivered including health campaigns, provision of facilities and health-promotion activities to encourage employees to make healthy lifestyle choices and sustained behaviour changes. An employee questionnaire survey was distributed at baseline (n= 1,452) and at five years (n= 1,134), including measures of physical activity, BMI, diet, self-efficacy, social support, perceived gen-eral health and mood, smoking behaviours, self-reported sickness absence, perceived work performance and job satisfaction. results: Samples were comparable at baseline and follow-up. At five years, significantly more respondents actively travelled (by walking or cycling both to work and for non-work trips) and more were active while at work. Significantly more respondents met current recommendations for physical activity at five years than at baseline. Fewer employers reported ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to being physically active following the intervention. Significantly lower sickness absence, greater job satisfaction and greater organisational commitment was reported at five years than at baseline. conclusions: Improvements in health behaviours, reductions in sickness absence and improvements in job satisfaction and organisational commitment were observed following five years of a workplace wellness intervention for NHS employees. These findings suggest that health-promoting programmes should be embedded within NHS infrastructure.
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spelling nottingham-392782020-05-04T16:38:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39278/ Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS Blake, Holly Zhou, Dingyuan Batt, Mark E. aims: Poor health and well-being has been observed among NHS staff and has become a key focus in current public health policy. The objective of this study was to deliver and evaluate a five-year employee wellness programme aimed at improving the health and well-being of employees in a large NHS workplace. method: A theory-driven multi-level ecological workplace wellness intervention was delivered including health campaigns, provision of facilities and health-promotion activities to encourage employees to make healthy lifestyle choices and sustained behaviour changes. An employee questionnaire survey was distributed at baseline (n= 1,452) and at five years (n= 1,134), including measures of physical activity, BMI, diet, self-efficacy, social support, perceived gen-eral health and mood, smoking behaviours, self-reported sickness absence, perceived work performance and job satisfaction. results: Samples were comparable at baseline and follow-up. At five years, significantly more respondents actively travelled (by walking or cycling both to work and for non-work trips) and more were active while at work. Significantly more respondents met current recommendations for physical activity at five years than at baseline. Fewer employers reported ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to being physically active following the intervention. Significantly lower sickness absence, greater job satisfaction and greater organisational commitment was reported at five years than at baseline. conclusions: Improvements in health behaviours, reductions in sickness absence and improvements in job satisfaction and organisational commitment were observed following five years of a workplace wellness intervention for NHS employees. These findings suggest that health-promoting programmes should be embedded within NHS infrastructure. SAGE 2013-09-01 Article PeerReviewed Blake, Holly, Zhou, Dingyuan and Batt, Mark E. (2013) Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS. Perspectives in Public Health, 133 (5). pp. 262-271. ISSN 1757-9147 Workplace physical activity employee wellness scheme exercise health behaviours health and well-being http://rsh.sagepub.com/content/133/5/262 doi:10.1177/1757913913489611 doi:10.1177/1757913913489611
spellingShingle Workplace
physical activity
employee wellness scheme
exercise
health behaviours
health and well-being
Blake, Holly
Zhou, Dingyuan
Batt, Mark E.
Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title_full Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title_fullStr Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title_full_unstemmed Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title_short Five-year workplace wellness intervention in the NHS
title_sort five-year workplace wellness intervention in the nhs
topic Workplace
physical activity
employee wellness scheme
exercise
health behaviours
health and well-being
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39278/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39278/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39278/