Exploring the impact of physical activity- and nutrition-focused workplace wellness programs on employee quality of life
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Kinesiology, School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Lienhard, Katherine Elizabeth
issued: 2020-06-16T16:45:52Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Background: The majority of employed Canadians work forty hours per week, spending approximately seven hours per day at the workplace. Promoting and/or offering physical activity and proper nutrition at the workplace has been shown to increase activity and improve dietary choices both during and outside of work hours. Further, diet quality and activity levels together play major roles in a person's overall quality of life. Measuring quality of life, which includes physical, emotional, mental, and financial factors, is often conducted via survey, where results can be averaged to create an overall wellness score for each individual. Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if nutrition and physical activity workplace wellness programs improve employee quality of life with the hypothesis that participants who participate will have higher overall wellness scores than those who do not. A systematic review with the same aim was also conducted. Methods: Twenty-eight employees at four Vancouver, BC companies with wellness programs were recruited to complete a survey. Data collection included the WellSuite® IV Health Risk Assessment for the Workforce (Non-U.S.) survey which contains 44 wellness-related questions. Employees who participated in their wellness program 25% or less of the time served as the control group. Data were described using descriptive statistics, contingency and frequency tables, ordinal logistic regression, one-way ANOVA, and independent samples T-tests. Results: The data suggests that those in the experimental group were more likely to have a higher Overall Wellness Score (p = 0.025), Fitness Score (p = 0.013), and to self-report higher life satisfaction and happiness than those in the control group. Nutrition Score increased with participation in the workplace wellness programs (p=0.035). Though limited by sample size and selection bias, this study supports the existing literature in the field and adds to the discussion on measuring quality of l…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/74710
note: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY- AND NUTRITION-FOCUSED WORKPLACE WELLNESS PROGRAMS ON EMPLOYEE QUALITY OF LIFE by Katherine Elizabeth Lienhard B.Sc., The University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Kinesiology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) June 2020 © Katherine Elizabeth Lienhard, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Exploring the Impact of Physical Activity- and Nutrition-Focused Workplace Wellness Programs on Employee Quality of Life submitted by Katherine Elizabeth Lienhard in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Kinesiology Examining Committee: Dr. Darren Warburton, Professor, School of Kinesiology, UBC Supervisor Dr. Tamara Cohen, Director of Dietetics and Assistant Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Michael Koehle, Professor, School of Kinesiology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Dr. Tanis Mihalynuk, Senior Dietitian, Vancouver Coastal Health Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Background: The majority of employed Canadians work forty hours per week, spending approximately seven hours per day at the workplace. Promoting and/or offering physical activity and proper nutrition at the workplace has been shown to increase activity and improve dietary choices both during and outside of work hours. Further, diet quality and activity levels together play major roles in a person's overall quality of life. Measuring quality of life, which includes physical, emotional, mental, and financial factors, is often conducted via survey, where results can be averaged to create an overall wellness score for each individual. Purpose: The aim of …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0391895
language: eng
degree discipline: Kinesiology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/74710