There’s an "obesity epidemic" in the U.S., and that means there’s probably one at your workplace, too. Obesity is a natural target for wellness programs. The effects of obesity—from cardiac problems to diabetes—are dire, but they are reversible through exercise, diet, and nutrition.
What works best to reduce obesity? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) set out to find out what works in weight control. They identified six promising strategies and then developed a program, LEAN Works!. (Check out their program at cdc.gov/leanworks.)
"LEAN" stands for Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition. It’s a free Web-based resource that offers interactive tools and evidence-based resources to design effective worksite obesity prevention and control programs. It includes an obesity cost calculator to estimate how much obesity is costing your company and how much savings your company could realize with different workplace interventions.
The program is based on research findings from the Guide to Community Preventive Services. The Guide summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease.
Promising practices are strategies delivered to employees through their employer that demonstrate a reduction in a "weight-related outcome" (i.e., weight, body mass index (BMI), body fat, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio) or prevalence of individuals who are overweight or obese.
As you can see in this chart, CDC divides its promising practices into three groups: environmental and policy, informational and educational, and behavioral interventions.
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CDC’s Promising Practices |
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Environmental and Policy |
Informational and Educational |
Behavioral Interventions |
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1. Enhanced access to opportunities for physical activity combined with health education |
2. Exercise prescriptions alone |
4. Weight loss competitions and incentives |
Which of these promising practices deserve a place in your wellness program? Here’s some more detail on what CDC found.
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Environmental and Policy Strategies
Environmental and policy strategies address the entire workforce or large groups of workers (not individuals) and target physical and organizational structures to develop worksite policies that support healthy behaviors. They are likely to be sustained for a longer period of time than individually oriented strategies.
Promising Practice #1: Enhanced Access to Opportunities for Physical Activity Combined with Health Education
Enhanced access to opportunities for physical activity combined with health education refers to practices that enable or facilitate access to physical activity programs, workshops, classes, and other resources in a worksite setting.
Such practices can include:
Developing walking trails,- Building a fitness center at the worksite, or
- Creating a par course (fitness trail).
CDC found five studies that evaluated the effectiveness of enhanced access. The studies’ mean weight reduction was 3.24 percent.
Informational and Educational Strategies
Informational and educational strategies focus on the provision of information designed to increase awareness and knowledge as a requisite to motivate behavioral change.
These strategies present both general health information, including information about weight loss and maintenance, chronic disease prevention and risk reduction, and specific information about physical activity and nutrition.
Promising Practice #2: Exercise Prescriptions Alone
Exercise prescriptions involve a planned or structured physical activity regimen given to an individual or group that includes specific recommendations for the frequency, intensity, and type of exercise.
The programs reviewed typically recruit participants into voluntary groups at the worksites. After completing physical fitness evaluations, participants are placed in exercise training programs of mild, moderate, or vigorous intensity.
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Promising Practice #3: Multi-component Educational Practices
Multi-component educational practices are aimed at providing information, addressing health promotion (e.g., healthy lifestyles, physical activity, and nutrition), and risk reduction (e.g., weight management, cardiovascular risks, and diabetes risks).
In addition to health education sessions, these programs incorporated components such as exercise prescription, nutrition prescription, and small media (e.g., brochures, pamphlets, electronic messages).
CDC found 24 studies that evaluated the effectiveness of multi-component programs, 17 of which measured weight. They showed a median loss of 5.2 pounds.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll cover more of CDC’s recommendations, and we’ll take a look at a unique wellness program guide that will help your company develop a cost-effective program of its own.
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