Is employee health behavior associated with workplace health culture?

Background: Fostering an environment that is supportive of health behavior in the workplace could improve health habits of employees. The aim of this study is to investigate links between employee health behavior and perceptions of workplace support for such behavior. Methods: 510 (36%) employees aged between 18-65 years filled out an online health risk assessment (HRA) that included questions related to nutrition, physical activity, weight status, psychological distress, sleep, smoking and alcohol. Imbedded in the HRA was the LifeGain Healthy Culture Audit (LHCA), used to assess perceptions of support for employee health behaviour in the workplace. Partial correlations and the magnitude of effects were calculated to assess the relationship between health behavior and perceptions of culture. Results Small to moderate effects were found for psychological distress scores, with correlations of between -0.17 and -0.30 for the sum and the five constructs of the LHCA. In addition, the sum of the LHCA correlated with the sum of health behaviours (r = 0.13, 90% CL 0.04, 0.21) and being a non smoker (r= 0.12, 90% CL: 0.05, 0.19). All other observed correlations were trivial. Conclusion: Employer strategies to create a workplace culture supportive of health behavior could improve employee health and wellbeing.