Workplace wellness programs appear to have little effect on employee healthy, health beliefs and medical utilization, according to a study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In a randomized controlled trial of more than 4,800 university employees, the researchers found that after 24 months, employee wellness program participants showed no significant differences on measured physical health outcomes such as weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or blood glucose; rates of medical diagnoses; or the use of health care services compared to a control group.
The program included paid time off for annual on-site health screenings, health risk assessments and ongoing wellness activities such as physical activity programs encouraging campus walks over lunch breaks, smoking-cessation programs and chronic disease self-management programs.
Findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
