Health Plans to Employment: An on-line health promotion intervention for Vocational Rehabilitation clients

The disparity in employment and insurance coverage between people with and without disabilities translates into disparities in access to health promotion programming. One approach to expand access at little cost is to provide an on-line health promotion intervention to Vocational Rehabilitation clients. This presentation will report preliminary results from a pilot study of the Health Plans to Employment (HPE) intervention. The HPE consists of a brief self-report questionnaire, targeted health and behavior change information, and a goal setting process to outline steps for achieving a behavior change objective. The HPE also builds on and links to existing resources, such as the National Center for Physical Activity and Disability, Mayo Clinic, USDA MyPyramid, and Helpguide.org. Recruitment for this pilot study targeting 120 VR consumers from three state VR agencies begins in March, 2010. Pilot participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Group 1 will receive a series of health promotion factsheets. Group 2 will participate in the HPE process. Group 3 will receive two brief Motivational Interviewing (MI) calls and participate in the HPE process. We include a MI component because research shows that MI has an additive effect when it is combined with other treatment modalities and that effects tend to be longer lasting. We will report on the comparative effectiveness of these three intervention conditions. Outcomes of interest include self-efficacy beliefs, stage of change for targeted health behaviors, health related quality of life, limitation from secondary conditions, health promoting lifestyle behaviors, and program adherence.