Take Charge of Your Health: Best Practices and Challenges in Worksite Wellness Programs

Introduction: Public health is forging new pathways toward health through the development and implementation of worksite wellness initiatives. The Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) has developed two worksite wellness initiatives, the Take Charge of Your Health Challenge and the Stepper Challenge.

Methods: The Stepper Challenge prompted participants to track their steps each day for 10 weeks. The Take Charge Challenge goes one step further than the Stepper Challenge and incorporates nutrition into the challenge as well. Both challenges were designed to be low cost, 10-week challenges to motivate individuals to engage in healthier lifestyles. A total of 10 different sites participated in challenges during 2007.

Results: Over 3000 participants (N=3288) initially registered to participate in one of the challenges, 1,752 (53%) participants completing at least one week of a challenge to become classified as an active participant. Compared to the beginning of the challenge, nearly four times as many respondents were at least in the Action Stage of Change for fruit and vegetable consumption at the end of the challenge. Regarding physical activity, the combined percentage of respondents in the Contemplation and Preparation Stages of Change decreased from 57% at the outset of the challenge to barely half of that (30%) following the challenge. Moreover, success can be found in that sites are beginning to repeat their participation.

Conclusions: With limited budgets and multiple sites, the Sedgwick County Health Department has provided the infrastructure and the impetus for workers across Sedgwick County to improve nutritional intake and increase physical activity.