Measuring Participation in Employer-Sponsored Health and Well-Being Programs: A Participation Index and Its Association With Health Risk Change.

PURPOSE:: To develop an index of participation in workplace health and well-being programs and assess its relationship with health risk status.

DESIGN:: Study design comprised a retrospective longitudinal analysis of employee health risk assessment (HRA) and program participation data.

SETTING:: Data from 6 companies that implemented health and well-being programs from 2014 to 2016.

PARTICIPANTS:: Employee participants (n = 95 318) from 6 companies who completed an HRA in 2014 to 2016. After matching those who completed the HRA in all 3 years, the longitudinal file included 38 789 respondents.

MEASURES:: Participation indicators were created for 9 different program components. The sum of these 9 components established the total participation index.

ANALYSIS:: Descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted on all participation measures. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of participation level on health risk over time.

RESULTS:: Higher levels of participation were associated with a greater reduction in risks, with each participation dose yielding a reduction of 0.038 risks ( P < .001).

CONCLUSION:: Results suggest that employees who participate more in workplace health and well-being programs experience more health risk improvement. The study also supports a more granular definition of participation based on the number of interactions and type of program.