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Journal of American College Health Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vach20

Perceived Wellness Needs of University Employees a

Jerry W. Barker PhD & J. Conrad Glass Jr EdD a

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North Carolina State University Student Health Services

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Department of Adult , Community College Education at NCSU , Raleigh, USA Published online: 09 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Jerry W. Barker PhD & J. Conrad Glass Jr EdD (1990) Perceived Wellness Needs of University Employees, Journal of American College Health, 38:4, 187-189, DOI: 10.1080/07448481.1990.9938440 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448481.1990.9938440

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CLINICAL AND PROGRAM NOTES

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Perceived Wellness Needs of University Employees JERRY W. BARKER, PhD, and J. CONRAD GLASS, JR, EdD

The economic significance of greater employee wellness in the private sector is well documented.’-4 Wellness programs, it is said, help contain health care costs, and healthier employees will be absent less because of illness.’ When illness does occur, these employees will have less severe illnesses and will recover faster; they are less likely to have accidents. Thus, it is possible to reduce disability and compensation claims,‘ and turnover may also be reduced. Good health is good business. University employee wellness program planners benefit by gathering information from prospective participants and meeting the needs and satisfying the interests of the institution’s employees. At least this idea has been supported by many wellness Our study was designed to answer the following questions: 1. What are employees’ wellness-related concerns, knowledge, practices, and risks? 2 . What are the wellness program activities in which employees indicate they are most interested? 3. Are there relationships between respondents’ perceived wellness needs and selected personal variables (sex, age, race, educational level) and employment variables (job position and employing university division)?

METHOD We designed a self-administered questionnaire and mailed it to a representative, systematic sample of

Jerry W. Barker is administrative director of North Carolina State University Student Health Services, and J. Conrad Glass, Jr, i s a professor in the Department of Adult and Community College Education at NCSU, Raleigh.

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1,326 employees of a large land-grant institution. A total of 408 questionnaires (31 were returned. The statistical analyses employed included frequency distributions, t tests, general linear (least squares) procedures, and Scheffe’s post hoc procedures. The analyses of data were undertaken primarily through the SAS Statistical Package,’* using the .05 level of significance throughout.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION O n 49 wellness topics, respondents indicated their level of concern on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = “not at all concerned” to 5 = “extremely concerned.” Employees rated medical insurance as their top concern, with a mean score of 3.67; 82% indicated that they were moderately to extremely concerned about this topic. There were no significant differences among the various age groups of university employees regarding this issue. Jecklin and Fetter” and RiggsI3 studied workers who were not university employees; although they found health and life insurance to be major concerns, they found that older persons, those nearing retirement, had greater concerns than those who were younger. From the findings of this study, it would appear that insurance can be regarded as a crucial concern for the vast .majority of university employees, regardless of age. Many studies have identified physical well-being and fitness as important we1Iness concerns. 1,2.6,10.’4-16 University employees’ concerns were similar, with physical well-being ranking second (3.64) and fitness third (3.55). Other highly ranked wellness concerns and their rank order were dental health, 4th; proper nutrition, 5th; vision, 6th; and weight control or reduction, 8th. Studies

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COLLEGE HEALTH of other groups of employees have found that these same issues were major health concerns.’ 7 6 l 4 ” ” It seemed significant that, for the university employees, a number of stress-related items ranked high in concern: everyday stress, 7th; burnout and mental fatigue, 9th; and relaxation, 1 lth. Other researchers have also shown stress to be a major health concern.’ ’ f ’ 1 4 1 R ’ y Stress factors appeared to be significantly important for the female university employees. AIDS ranked 15th and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) ranked 26th as areas of concern. An interesting phenomenon, however, was exhibited by the respondents: responses were clustered at the two extremes of the range of choices. Although approximately 40% were ”not at all concerned” about STDs and 30% about AIDS, 23% expressed extreme concern about STDs and 31% about AIDS. Respondents with high school or vocational school education were significantly more likely than others to indicate extreme concern. Other areas of high concern for a number of respondents were family planning (20%), especially for those under age 35; alcohol problems (7.3%); drug dependency (7.8%); smoking habits (1 8.2%); heart disease (16.4%); cancer risks (18.6%); chronic back pain (14%); depression (12.5%); hazardous chemicals (17.9%); and suicide (3.5%). Some of these are serious national health problem^'^ that affect small portions of the work force, but they cannot be neglected by wellness programs. Special programs targeted for persons with these concerns might be implemented periodically. Health Information, Practices, and Risk Status of Employees

Respondents indicated that they knew most about the recommended weight range for their height and body type (83% responded ”yes”); their blood pressure (79.5% “yes”); and how to select a nutritious, balanced diet (81.2%). More than 64% knew how to count calories for weight control and perform proper warm-up exercises. A large portion (67.8%) did not know the recommended exercise heart rate, how to design a personal fitness plan (53.2%), or how to perform CPR (76.8%). Employees have a perceived need for stress management, yet 38.2% did not know the symptoms of stress, and 58.5% indicated they could not perform relaxation activities. High-risk status was identified with maintaining an adequate level of fitness (21.7% marked ”rarely”) and maintaining proper weight for body type (17.8% said “rarely”). Cigarette smoking was a high risk for the 12.1% who were regular smokers. Topics of Most Interest to Employees

Of 573 responses to the question, “What wellness programs or topics are you most interested in?” a total of 161 stress-related responses were identified. Exercise

and fitness-related responses totaled 132. The third large group of responses (n = 115) was related to nutrition and diet. Smoking was listed 24 times, first aid 19, CPR 13, and heart disease 14 times. Relationships Between Wellness items and Independent Variables

Significant relationships were found between younger employees and issues of pregnancy, family planning, parenting, PMS, first aid, and nutrition. Employees with graduate degrees demonstrated less concern with wellness items and risk measures and higher levels of health knowledge than those employees whose education was limited to high school or some university attendance. Post hoc pairwise comparisons of means on 58 items identified 24 associations between clerical respondents and administrator/faculty, with clerical employees reporting greater concern in every case. It appears that employees with less formal education, predominantly those in unskilled labor or clerical positions, view themselves as having greater concern about their health and wellness needs and risks than other employees. CONCLUSIONS

Wellness programmers have the challenge of meeting the wellness needs and interests perceived by employees. Programs must, therefore, concentrate on stress management, physical fitness, and nutrition and weight control. Our findings generally support results presented by other, similar studies; they indicate that university employees have the same wellness concerns and needs as employees in industry, business, and the adult population at large. REFERENCES 1. Ardell DB, Tager MJ.Planning for Wellness (ed 2). Dubuque, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1982. 2. Fielding JE. Effectiveness of employee health improvement programs. / Occup Med 1982;24(11):907-915. 3. Hettler W. Encouraging a lifetime pursuit of excellence. Health Values: Achieving High Level Wellness 1984;8(4): 13-1 7. 4. Parkinson RS. Managing Health Promotion in the Workplace: Guidelines for Implementation and €valuation. Palo Alto, Mayfield Publishing Company, 1982. 5. Marshall PR. The chancellor’s view of wellness. Health Values: Achieving High Level Wellness 1984;8(4):6-8. 6. Cooper KH. The Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being. New York, M. Evans & Company, 1982. 7. Jones LD. Ten questions to ask-and answer-before launching an employee health promotion program. Promoting Health (American Hospital Association) 1982;3(5): 1,7-8. 8. Brennan AJJ. Coordinating an employee health promotion program. Occupational Health Nursing 1983;August: 35-38. 9. Romejko L, Barr M. Did wellness work at SMU?Health Values: Achieving High Level Wellness 1986; 10(5):35-38.

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EMPLOYEES’ WELLNESS NEEDS

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10. Haydon DF, Murray TD, Edwards TL. Texas Employee Health and Fitness Program: An example of unique legislation. / Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 1986;October:28-32. 11. Jecklin MJ, Fetter EA. Needs of Older Employees and Retirees: Task Force Results of the Corporate Volunteerism Council of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul, Corporate Volunteerism Council of Minneapolis/St. Paul, 1985. 12. SAS User’s Guide: Statistics, Version 5 . Cary, NC, SAS Institute, 1985. 13. Riggs RS. Perceived health needslproblemslinterests of the aged. Health Educ 1978;9(2):3. 14. Beck RN. IBM’s Plan for Life: Toward a comprehensive health care strategy. Health Educ Q 1982;9(speciaI):55-60. 15. Healthy People: The Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Washington, US

Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare publication 79-55071A, 1979. 16. Promoting Health/Preventing Disease: Objectives for the Nation. Washington, US Dept of Health and Human Services, 1980. 17. Matross R, Roesler J. University of Minnesota Civil Service Wellness Survey: Finding Out About Employee Health and Wellness Needs. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1982. 18. Dionne ED. Corporate wellness programs can be costeffective. National Safety News 1984 March:70-72. 19. Travis JW. Wellness Inventory. Mill Valley, CA, Wellness Associates, 1981. 20. Employee Health Survey. Minneapolis, Control Data Corporation, 1982. 21. Gaines J . Health interest inventory. Health Educ 1986; 17(4):28-29.

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Perceived wellness needs of university employees.

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