Impact of Employee Wellness Programme
Condition: Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The introduction of a wellness programme for workers employed in a clothing factory will
      improve quality of life, pain, attendance at work and levels of physical activity.
    

Detailed description: 
      Introduction: The prevalence of health risk behaviours is growing amongst South African
      employees. Health risk behaviours have been identified as a major contributor to reduced
      health related quality of life (HRQoL) and the increase prevalence of non-communicable
      diseases. Worksite wellness programmes promise to promote behaviour changes amongst employees
      and to improve their HRQoL.

      Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term efficacy of an employee wellness
      programme on HRQoL, health behaviour change, levels of self efficacy, pain intensity, body
      mass index (BMI) and absenteeism amongst clothing and textile manufacturing employees.

      Methods: The study was a randomised control trial consisting of 80 participants from three
      clothing manufacturing companies in South Africa. The experimental group was subjected to a
      wellness programme based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) as well as
      weekly supervised exercise classes over six weeks. The control group received a once-off
      health promotion talk and various educational pamphlets, with no further intervention.
      Measurements were recorded at baseline and at six weeks post-intervention. Outcome measures
      used included the EQ-5D, Brief Pain Inventory-SF, Stanford Exercise Behaviours Scale,
      Stanford Self-Efficacy Scale, Stanford Self-Rated Health Scale, BMI and absenteeism.

      Data Analysis: All the data were analysed with the Statistica-8 software program. Although
      t-tests are the most commonly used statistical method for evaluating the differences in the
      means between two groups (e.g. control and experimental), it assumes that the variable is
      normally distributed. Thus, because the ordinal data were not normally distributed,
      non-parametric tests were used to evaluate the differences in the medians between the two
      groups and to determine the level of significance. The Sign test was used in place of the
      paired t-test to determine the within group changes. The Mann-Whitney U test was used in
      place of the independent t-test to determine the difference between the two groups.
    

Intervention name(s): Employee wellness programme; Comparator (Once off educational session and educational materials)
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The experimental group was subjected to a wellness programme based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) as well as weekly supervised exercise classes over six weeks.; Once off educational session and educational materials
Other intervention name(s): Exercise classes; Health education
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Occupational health; cognitive behavioural therapy; physiotherapy; physical activity