Partnering Healthy@Work: an Australian university-government partnership facilitating policy-relevant research.

Research funding is increasingly supporting collaborations between knowledge users and researchers. Partnering Healthy@Work (pH@W), an inaugural recipient of funding through Australia's Partnership for Better Health Grants scheme, was a 5-year partnership between the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian State Service (TSS). The partnerships purpose was to evaluate a comprehensive workplace health promotion programme (Healthy@Work) targeting 30 000 public sector employees; generating new knowledge and influencing workplace health promotion policy and decision-making. This mixed methods study evaluates the partnership between policy-makers and academics and identifies strategies that enabled pH@W to deliver key project outcomes. A pH@W document review was conducted, two partnership assessment tools completed and semi-structured interviews conducted with key policy-makers and academics. Analysis of the partnership assessment tools and interviews found that pH@W had reached a strong level of collaboration. Policy-relevant knowledge was generated about the health of TSS employees and their engagement with workplace health promotion. Knowledge exchange of a conceptual and instrumental nature occurred and was facilitated by the shared grant application, clear governance structures, joint planning, regular information exchange between researchers and policy-makers and research student placements in the TSS. Flexibility and acknowledgement of different priorities and perspectives of partner organizations were identified as critical factors for enabling effective partnership working and research relevance. Academic-policy-maker partnerships can be a powerful mechanism for improving policy relevance of research, but need to incorporate strategies that facilitate regular input from researchers and policy-makers in order to achieve this.

Barriers and facilitators to participation in workplace health promotion (WHP) activities: results from a cross-sectional survey of public-sector employees in Tasmania, Australia.

Issue addressed Workplaces are promising settings for health promotion, yet employee participation in workplace health promotion (WHP) activities is often low or variable. This study explored facilitating factors and barriers associated with participation in WHP activities that formed part of a comprehensive WHP initiative run within the Tasmanian State Service (TSS) between 2009 and 2013. Methods TSS employee (n=3228) completed surveys in 2013. Data included sociodemographic characteristics, employee-perceived availability of WHP activities, employee-reported participation in WHP activities, and facilitators and barriers to participation. Ordinal log-link regression was used in cross-sectional analyses. Results Significant associations were found for all facilitating factors and participation. Respondents who felt their organisation placed a high priority on WHP, who believed that management supported participation or that the activities could improve their health were more likely to participate. Time- and health-related barriers were associated with participation in fewer activities. All associations were independent of age, sex, work schedule and employee-perceived availability of programs. Part-time and shift-work patterns, and location of activities were additionally identified barriers. Conclusion Facilitating factors relating to implementation, peer and environmental support, were associated with participation in more types of activities, time- and health-related barriers were associated with less participation. So what? Large and diverse organisations should ensure WHP efforts have manager support and adopt flexible approaches to maximise employee engagement.

Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress in a large and diverse public sector workforce: baseline results from Partnering Healthy@Work.

BACKGROUND: Depressive and anxiety disorders are common among working adults and costly to employers and individuals. Mental health screening is often an important initial strategy, but the resultant data are often of unknown representativeness and difficult to interpret. In a public sector workforce, this study used a brief screener for depression/anxiety to: a) compare prevalence of high psychological distress obtained from a researcher survey with an employer survey and population norms and b) verify whether expected correlates were observed in a screening setting. METHODS: Participants were public servants working for an Australian state government. High psychological distress (Kessler-10 ≥22) stratified by age and sex was compared for a random weighted sample researcher survey (n = 3406) and an anonymous volunteer employer survey (n = 7715). Prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated from log binomial regression. RESULTS: Referencing the researcher survey, prevalence of high psychological distress was greater by age and sex in the employer survey but was only dependably higher for men when compared with population norms. Modelling suggested this may be due to work stress (effort-reward imbalance) (PR = 3.19, 95% CI 1.45-7.01) and casual/fixed-term employment (PR 2.64, 95% CI 1.26-5.56). CONCLUSIONS: Depression and anxiety screening using typical employer survey methods could overestimate prevalence but expected correlates are observed in a screening setting. Guidance for employers on screening and interpretation should be provided to encourage engagement with mental health prevention and treatment programs in the workplace.

Investigating Employee-Reported Benefits of Participation in a Comprehensive Australian Workplace Health Promotion Program.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate employee-reported benefits of participation, employee organizational commitment, and health-related behaviors and body mass index (BMI) following implementation of a comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) program. METHODS: State government employees from Tasmania, Australia, completed surveys in 2010 (n = 3408) and 2013 (n = 3228). Repeated cross-sectional data were collected on sociodemographic, health, and work characteristics. Participation in WHP activities, employee-reported organizational commitment, and benefits of participation were collected in 2013. RESULTS: Respondents who participated in multiple activities were more likely to agree that participation had motivated them, or helped them to address a range of health and work factors (trends: P < 0.05). There were significant associations between participation and employee organizational commitment. No differences were observed in health-related behaviors and BMI between 2010 and 2013. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy@Work (pH@W) was either ineffective, or insufficient time had elapsed to detect a population-level change in employee lifestyle factors.

Workplace Health Promotion and Mental Health: Three-Year Findings from Partnering Healthy@Work.

This study aimed to investigate the association between mental health and comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) delivered to an entire state public service workforce (~28,000 employees) over a three-year period. Government departments in a state public service were supported to design and deliver a comprehensive, multi-component health promotion program, Healthy@Work, which targeted modifiable health risks including unhealthy lifestyles and stress. Repeated cross-sectional surveys compared self-reported psychological distress (Kessler-10; K10) at commencement (N = 3406) and after 3 years (N = 3228). WHP availability and participation over time was assessed, and associations between the K10 and exposure to programs estimated. Analyses were repeated for a cohort subgroup (N = 580). Data were weighted for non-response. Participation in any mental health and lifestyle programs approximately doubled after 3 years. Both male and female employees with poorer mental health participated more often over time. Women's psychological distress decreased over time but this change was only partially attributable to participation in WHP, and only to lifestyle interventions. Average psychological distress did not change over time for men. Unexpectedly, program components directly targeting mental health were not associated with distress for either men or women. Cohort results corroborated findings. Healthy@Work was successful in increasing participation across a range of program types, including for men and women with poorer mental health. A small positive association of participation in lifestyle programs with mental health was observed for women but not men. The lack of association of mental health programs may have reflected program quality, its universality of application or other contextual factors.

Factors Associated With Availability of, and Employee Participation in, Comprehensive Workplace Health Promotion in a Large and Diverse Australian Public Sector Setting: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with the perceived availability of, and reported participation in workplace health promotion activities implemented in the Tasmanian State Service, Australia. METHODS: Data from 3228 employees were collected in 2013 on sociodemographic and work characteristics, health-related behaviors, and employee-reported availability of and participation in health-related activities. Ratios of prevalence for reported availability and participation by each factor were estimated using negative binomial regression (availability) and Poisson regression (participation). RESULTS: Significant differences in availability of different activity types were found for numerous factors. Compared with the reference categories, only administrative staff or respondents reporting any leisure-time physical activity were more likely to participate, and smokers and respondents with variable work schedules or cardiometabolic conditions were less likely. CONCLUSIONS: Employees with suboptimal health-related factors were less likely to engage with activities offered through this comprehensive workplace health promotion initiative.

Workplace health promotion: what public-sector employees want, need, and are ready to change.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether employees selected appropriate health change targets (HCTs) compared with self-reported lifestyle factors (smoking, nutrition, alcohol, physical activity [PA], sedentariness, weight status, and psychological distress) and readiness to change their HCT. METHODS: Cross-sectional data of 3367 state-government employees from Tasmania, Australia, were collected in 2010. RESULTS: Overall, respondents chose HCTs relevant to their health behaviors. The most frequently selected HCTs were PA, diet, and weight. The majority was in the "action" stage for their HCT, except for those nominating smoking cessation, changes to work characteristics, and moderating alcohol intake. CONCLUSIONS: Employee perceptions of their own health needs broadly corresponded to their health-related behaviors, weight status, and stress. Workplace health facilitators should be prepared for variable uptake on smoking cessation programs. Physical activity interventions are likely well received, irrespective of risk-related lifestyle factors.