Lessons learned from telephone-based health coaching in the worksite

Telephone-based health coaching is becoming increasingly popular as a worksite health promotion strategy because of its perceived convenience and low costs. This presentation will share lessons learned from a telephone-delivered worksite weight loss intervention, FUEL Your Life (FYL). Process evaluation data including call participation and related participant outcomes will be presented. FYL is a worksite translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program that focuses on healthier eating and increased physical activity. Participants were scheduled to complete eight, 20-minute calls with a health coach over six months. The health coach made five attempts to contact each participant before a session was considered incomplete. As part of a larger study, data were analyzed from 144 county government employees enrolled in telephone-delivered FYL. Throughout the intervention, health coaches made 2,453 phone calls.  However, 53% of these calls went unanswered, resulting in incomplete sessions.  Participants were withdrawn from the program after three consecutive missed sessions with no response, and 25% of total attempts were to participants who ultimately withdrew from the program. Over 600 sessions were completed, with 73% requiring only one or two attempts. The number of completed phone sessions was linked with successful weight loss; on average, participants who lost weight completed more sessions than those who did not (6.7 vs. 4.3 sessions). Currently, a great deal of time and resources is spent in making attempts that do not result in complete sessions. This presentation will offer recommendations about delivery procedures and protocols, which have implications for program effectiveness and managing project costs.