Do employee wellness programs actually work?

It seems like a question that’s not worth asking. If you offer employees wellness programs such as fitness centers, nutrition counselling, and stress reduction, and you charge little or nothing — or even offer financial incentives — surely it will improve the participants’ health. And surely the employer would see a return for investing in these programs, in improved worker productivity and decreased absenteeism. What does the research say? And yet that’s not what researchers reported in the April 2019 edition of JAMA. They analyzed data from nearly 160 worksites employing nearly 33,000 people. About 10% had wellness programs that addressed topics such as exercise, nutrition (including meetings with onsite registered dietitians), and stress. When comparing employees with and without a wellness program at work over 18 months, those who had a wellness program had significantly higher rates of self-reported exercise (70% vs. 62%) and weight management efforts (69% vs. 55%). Despite these significant (though small) differences, those with a wellness program and those with no wellness program had similar self-reported health behaviors and outcomes (such as amount of regular exercise, sleep quality, food choice, and 24 others) results on 10 health measures (such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and body mass index) use of medical resources (including medical spending and medication expenses) absenteeism and job performance. These results call into question whether the as...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Diet and Weight Loss Exercise and Fitness Men's Health Women's Health Workplace health Source Type: blogs