ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess efficacy of 2 worksite health promotion interventions. METHODS: Randomly assign 3 fire stations to (a) team-based curriculum, (b) individual counselor meetings, and (c) control. RESULTS: Both interventions were feasible and acceptable, and they resulted in significant reductions in LDL cholesterol. The team approach significantly increased coworker cohesion, personal exercise habits, and coworkers' healthy behaviors. The one-on-one strategy significantly increased dietary self-monitoring, decreased fat intake, and reduced depressed feelings. CONCLUSIONS: Although both interventions promoted healthy behaviors, specific outcomes differed and reflected their conceptual underpinnings. The team-based curriculum is innovative and may enlist influences not accessed with individual formats.
Subject(s)
Health Behavior , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Promotion/organization & administration , Occupational Health Services/organization & administration , Adult , Cholesterol, LDL/blood , Counseling , Depression/psychology , Diet, Fat-Restricted/statistics & numerical data , Evaluation Studies as Topic , Exercise/physiology , Exercise/psychology , Fires/prevention & control , Fruit , Humans , Middle Aged , Pilot Projects , Program Evaluation , Surveys and Questionnaires , VegetablesABSTRACT
The Promoting Healthy Lifestyles: Alternative Models' Effects (PHLAME) study evaluates the efficacy of two intervention strategies for improving nutrition and physical activity practices in fire fighters: a team-centered program and a one-on-one format targeting the individual. PHLAME compares these two behavior change models (the team-based versus the one-on-one approaches) against a usual-care control group. As a group, fire fighters have a concentration of the same harmful behaviors and health risks commonly afflicting the US population. Fire fighters have a unique work structure which is ideal for a team-centered model of behavior change. This strategy, based on Social Learning Theory, focuses on a team of fire fighters who work together on the same shift. If this team-centered model proves successful, it could provide a cost-effective method to impact behavior, and be disseminated among fire bureaus and in other team settings. The one-on-one intervention incorporates the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change, uses Motivational Interviewing for its counseling strategy and could be used in the more typical provider-client clinic setting. Findings from PHLAME will provide information about the process and outcomes of these models' ability to achieve health behavior change.
