The Impact of Employee Wellness Programs

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Disease, Chronic; Health Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Workplace wellness program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03167658

P30AG012810 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

R01AG050329 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

72611 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

AEARCTR-0000586 (Registry Identifier)

Wellness 14-3141

Details and patient eligibility

About

There is great public and private interest in the use of workplace wellness programs to reduce health care spending, improve health outcomes, and enhance productivity for employees. However, there is little rigorous evidence on the effects of wellness programs. This study partners with a large multi-state U.S. employer (BJ's Wholesale Club) and an experienced wellness vendor (Wellness Workdays) to evaluate a multi-prong workplace wellness program, including components such as nutrition counseling, fitness challenges, and stress management workshops. The wellness program will be delivered by a team of experts including Registered Dieticians, and will include financial rewards for participation. The program will be available to employees in initially 20 of BJ's 200 worksites, and later expanded to 25 worksites. These worksites have been randomly selected, allowing a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the effects of the wellness program. Data will be collected on a wide array of outcomes from multiple sources, including on-site biometric screenings and surveys, employment records, and health insurance claims for employees at both treatment and control worksites.

Enrollment: 48,664 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Employed in one of BJ's clubs during the period of the intervention

Exclusion criteria

• Not employed in one of BJ's clubs during the period of the intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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48,664 participants in 3 patient groups

Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

Employees at treatment worksites will be given access to workplace wellness programming. Participation by employees will be voluntary, but all employees at treatment sites will be considered as part of the treatment group. Employees will also be invited to complete on-site biometric assessments and questionnaires. Data from secondary data sources (including employment records and health insurance claims) will be collected for employees at all BJ's worksites.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Workplace wellness program

Primary Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Employees at primary control worksites will be invited to complete on-site biometric assessments and questionnaires, but will not have access to the workplace wellness programming. Data from secondary data sources (including employment records and health insurance claims) will be collected for employees at all BJ's worksites.

Secondary Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Employees at secondary control worksites will not participate in in-person screenings or questionnaires, and will not have access to workplace wellness programming. Data from secondary data sources (including employment records and health insurance claims) will be collected for employees at all BJ's worksites.