Work Site Health Promotion Research: To what Extent can we Generalize the Results and what is Needed to Translate Research to Practice?
Abstract
Information on external validity of work site health promotion research is essential to translate research findings to practice. The authors provide a literature review of work site health behavior interventions. Using the RE-AIM framework, they summarize characteristics and results of these studies to document reporting of intervention reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. The authors reviewed a total of 24 publications from 11 leading health behavior journals. They found that participation rates among eligible employees were reported in 87.5% of studies; only 25% of studies reported on intervention adoption. Data on characteristics of participants versus nonparticipants were reported in fewer than 10% of studies. Implementation data were reported in 12.5% of the studies. Only 8% of studies reported any type of maintenance data. Stronger emphasis is needed on representativeness of employees, work site settings studied, and longer term results. Examples of how this can be done are provided.
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Healthier and more motivated individuals self-selecting for workplace health promotion programs has been observed in many studies and is a common concern for researchers.
“Healthier and more motivated individuals self-selecting for workplace health promotion programs has been observed in many studies and is a common concern for researchers [18,20,53].”
From Personal Health Technologies in Employee Health Promotion: Usage Activity, Usefulness, and Health-Related Outcomes in a 1-Year Randomized Controlled Trial (2013) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- Bull, S. S., Gillette, C., Glasgow, R. E., & Estabrooks, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Independent Researcher
- Kaiser Permanente (US)
- Venue
- Health Education & Behavior
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-10
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 537-549
- ISSN
- 1090-1981 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6127
- OpenAlex
- W2134042710
- Cited by
- 128
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 1.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Education & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
- Keywords
- generalizability, research generalizability, research-to-practice translation, RE-AIM framework, health behavior interventions, intervention adoption, intervention implementation, intervention maintenance, reporting quality
- MeSH terms
- Health Promotion, Humans, Occupational Health Services, Program Evaluation, Health Behavior
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