Participation and compliance in an employee-initiated health challenge

Objective: With so many of employees’ waking hours spent in the workplace it is an important place to establish healthy behaviors. This retrospective study describes an ongoing grassroots wellness program, an important component of public health, established at Palmer College of Chiropractic in 2009.

Methods: The organizing committee of the Palmer Health Challenge established numerous elective competitions for the approximate three months of the annual challenge. We collected data over the five years and are continually assessing ways to increase participation.

Results: We had expected an initial high general participation with a tapering effect, but this was not the case. Participation ran from a low of 35% of employees to a high of 51.3%, while a 2013 Rand study on workplace wellness reported participation rates of 20% or less for all lifestyle management programs.

Team membership was strongly encouraged. Compliance was measured by self-reporting activity sheets. A significant difference (p < .02) was found in years 2011 and 2012, when the kindred teams were more compliant than blended teams about reporting their activities.

Conclusion: We propose that the differences between our findings and those of the Rand study are due to the Challenge being team-oriented and employee rather than administratively driven. We hope that others will replicate the Challenge and share their findings.