Weight loss competitions at the work site: impact on weight, morale and cost-effectiveness.

Abstract

Three weight loss competitions were held in business/ industrial settings. One competition was between three banks; the other two were within industries, either between employee teams selected at random or between divisions of the industry. Attrition in the competitions was less than I per cent and weight loss averaged 5.5 kg. Both employees and management reported positive changes in morale and employee/management relations, and both considered the competition important to the success of the program. The costeffectiveness ratio ($2.93 per I per cent reduction in percentage overweight) is the best yet reported. (Am J Public Health 1984; 74:1283-1285 Health promotion at the work site has potential for improving public health,'-2 but in the weight control area, programs have not transferred well from clinical to work settings; the typical worksite program reports nearly double the attrition and half the weight loss found for similar programs in the clinic.3-7 One way to improve these results may be to introduce health promotion competitions to enhance motivation and social support. This paper describes the use of weight loss competitions in three work settings. MethodsThree separate competitions were held in Lycoming County, an area of 119,000 population in north central Pennsylvania. Employees in all participating industries were invited to participate. Subjects less than 10 per cent overweight were excluded from the main analyses.Competition 1 (Three Banks)-A challenge for competition was issued by the presidents of three banks* with a total of 570 employees. In the three banks, 176 employees (31 per cent of the work force) participated in the 12-week program; 112 persons were more than 10 per cent overweight.Competition 2 (Litton)-Fifty-three of 225 employees of a manufacturing firm (Litton Industries) participated in the 13-week program. The participants were assigned randomly to one of three teams within the industry. Participants were weighed weekly by a member of the research team who was not connected with industry. At each weigh-in, the participants received an installment of a behavioral treatment manual8 which emphasized self-monitoring, stimulus control, slowing eating, reinforcement, social support, attitude change, nutrition, and exercise. A large board (4 x 5 ft) was placed in a prominent location in each workplace to show the weekly progress of each team. The boards provided weekly feedback and acted as incentives. Emnployees and management completed a post-program questionnaire to rate several aspects of the program. They rated changes on five-point scales in morale, energy level, employee-management relations, absenteeism, and work performance.Results were analyzed using analyses of variance and covariance with initial weight as the covariate. Chi square analyses were used to evaluate questionnaire responses and correlations were used to test for associations between weight change and questionnaire responses. The covariance analyses yielded the same pattern of results as the analyses o...

The effects of workplace health promotion on absenteeism and employment costs in a large industrial population.

“…[17][18][19] The evidence is more tentative in other areas of lifestyle change. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Health education in the workplace is growing rapidly, driven by the promise of providing several noneconomic,33,36-38 as well as economic benefits. '838-4 Some authors emphasize the need for cost benefit and cost effectiveness analyses in order to examine the cost-effectiveness of workplace health promotion.18S3740,4l145 Others point out the limitations to the existing literature.38,39,41…”

Public Health Approaches to Obesity and Its Management

“…The cost-effectiveness favors the competition. Our costs have been reduced further and are now half that shown in Figure 1 (49).…”

“…Brownell et al (49) reported the results of weight loss competitions held in three types of business and industry. The first was between three banks with approximately 200 employees each.…”

“…A study by Klesges, Vasey & Glasgow (54) tested a smoking competition among five banks, modeled after the weight loss competitions described above (49). Four banks were involved in the competition, and the fifth received a clinical program delivered by professionals.…”

Clustering of lifestyle risk factors in employees: A quasi-experimental study in Sousse, Tunisia

“…Programs vary largely in objectives, content, organization, cost, and setting. Some are simple and inexpensive (4), some focus on a single risk factor such as obesity (5), smoking (4), or blood pressure (6) while others target multiple behavioral objectives. These modifiable lifestyle-related health risk factors tend to cluster among themselves, (7,8) increasing the likelihood that individuals are dealing with multiple health risk factors at a given time.…”