The Akron Legal News

OSU survey: Obstacles remain, but wellness programs can be effective

RICK ADAMCZAK
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 2, 2013

A new Ohio State University survey confirms previous studies showing that workers who reported higher beliefs in their ability to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors also reported more participation in behaviors that support their overall health.

The survey results show that workplace wellness programs can be effective in improving workers’ health, according to Bernadette Melnyk, Ohio State’s chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing, who spearheaded the survey.

“Implementing programs that can strengthen faculty and staff’s beliefs about engaging in wellness and improve their ability to engage in healthy behaviors will impact what they actually do in terms of leading a healthy lifestyle,” Melnyk said.

Being healthy not only benefits the workers themselves, but their employers, too, she said.

“Evidence from studies has shown that when people have higher levels of wellness, they are more happy, engaged and productive and have fewer chronic illnesses, which means they miss less work and cost less in terms of health care claims,” Melnyk said.

She said there is an economic incentive to keep staff and faculty healthy, “but it’s also simply the right thing to do as an employer.”

But the OSU survey, which was conducted among university employees, and a separate survey that included more than 90 academic institutions around the nation, also found there are some challenges to getting workers to participate in healthy activities.

Among those obstacles are a lack of workplace flexibility and perceived low leader support.

Staff and faculty reported, on average, that they believe university leader engagement in promoting and having role models for health and wellness fell between “somewhat” and “moderate” levels.

“Perceptions that faculty and staff have about the wellness culture and environment affect their lifestyle beliefs and behaviors, so those perceptions are extremely important,” said Melnyk, also associate vice president for health promotion.

“In the Ohio State survey and the summit survey, we had similar findings. How people perceive that their leaders’ support and role-model healthy behaviors was relatively low, so we need the leaders in our academic institutions to support health and wellness programs in their units and to role-model those behaviors.”

Other challenges to increasing more wellness program participation include lacking a culture that encourages wellness, good communication about available programs and activities, and convenient locations and improved access to wellness resources, according to the national survey results.

“Building a culture and ecosystem of wellness is critical for sustainability of wellness in institutions, and it will require working with individuals on behavior change since behaviors are truly the number one killer of Americans,” Melnyk said. “The wellness journey might be character-building at times, but it will be worth it as we foster healthier, happier and more engaged faculty, staff and students.”

Melnyk presented the findings Tuesday at the inaugural Building Healthy Academic Communities National Summit at Ohio State, a national initiative to improve population health in higher educational institutions.

The appointment of Melnyk as the university’s first chief wellness officer shows that Ohio State is serious about taking care of its own, she said.

Also, the university has formed the One University Health & Wellness Council, a university-wide leadership group setting wellness goals and developing plans to reach them.

Most respondents to the OSU survey reported that they participated in three Ohio State wellness programs that also were ranked as the three most important wellness opportunities the university offers

Those programs are the Your Plan for Health web portal, flu shots and free health screenings.

Your Plan for Health is an Ohio State benefit program designed to promote the prevention of health problems through a variety of services and incentives.

The survey data will be used to formulate the next steps in Ohio State’s effort to become the “healthiest university in the world,” which will include a leaders wellness program, positioning wellness activities directly in campus units and monitoring health outcomes.

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