Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #99662

Douglas W. Billings, PhD¹, April Hendrickson, MA¹, Anita S. Back, MS¹, Enid Chung, PhD², and Royer F. Cook, PhD¹. (1) ISA Associates, Inc., 201 North Union Street, Suite 330, Alexandria, VA 22314-2650, (703) 739-0880, dbillings@isagroup.com, (2) Institute for Health and Productivity Studies, Cornell University, 4301 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 330, Washington, DC 20008

The large majority of American corporations are engaged in some form of health promotion, and there is accumulating evidence that such programs can be excellent mechanisms for increasing worker health, decreasing health care costs, and improving productivity. Although effective, most rely on a traditional seminar-based mode of presentation that is restricted in time and place, and does not take full advantage of new web-based technologies that permit the creation of programs that are broadly accessible, individually tailored, interactive, and media-rich.

The Health Connection was created to fill that void. It is a web-based health promotion program offering training in stress management, physical fitness enhancement, and nutrition/weight management, with substance abuse prevention material woven throughout each of these topics. By integrating substance abuse into the more positive framework of health promotion, it is de-stigmatized. Previous research by our group has demonstrated that this embedded approach can reduce employee substance abuse without hindering the beneficial effects of the health promotion program.

The Health Connection is currently being field-tested with 500 employees. One-half of the participants will randomly receive the web-based training and the other half will receive printed materials, selected to match the topic areas in the Health Connection. The impact of the program will be examined on measures of stress, healthy eating, fitness, and alcohol using a pre-posttest design.

This presentation will include a brief demonstration of the Health Connection program, results from the field test, and a discussion of the promises and pitfalls of web-based health promotion in the workplace.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Assess the value of web-based approaches to health promotion in the workplace 2)Evaluate the advantages of imbedding substance abuse prevention messages within workplace health promotion/wellness programs 3)Describe the findings from a field test examining the effectiveness of a web-based health promotion program

Keywords: Worksite, World Wide Web

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF I am an employee of the company that developed and tested the product and described in the presentation..