Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (HELP)

Implemented from February 2005 to March 2006 by Arkansas Department of Health, Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (HELP) aimed to increase healthy behaviors among state health and human service employees in Little Rock, Arkansas. HELP has four components: (1) participants enroll in the program by creating an online account and completing a baseline Health Risk Assessment (HRA), (2) participants engage in web-based monitoring/tracking, (3) education and support is provided to employees, and (4) awards are provided as incentives for participation and completion of the follow-up HRA. The HRA was used to generate a health report for each individual. The web-based system was optional and helped employees log their healthy behaviors in order to earn points that they could use to redeem incentives. The education and support component included classes about nutrition, weight management, tobacco cessation, and physical activity.

All employees of the Department of Human Services were encouraged to participate in HELP via emails, newsletters, and other forms of internal communication. In addition, HELP Coordinators at each worksite assisted with the program by encouraging participation and monitoring, identifying employee needs, and organizing and implementing educational activities. Finally, incentives for participation included recognition in the employee newsletter and prizes such as resistance bands, t-shirts, gym bags, and pedometers. HELP was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HELP is now available as AHELP (Arkansas HELP) to all State of Arkansas employees.

The goal of the Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program is to increase healthy behaviors such as eating fruits and vegetables and engaging in regular exercise.

The study compared the answers to HRA before and after the intervention, with 1,017 employees who enrolled in the program but only 214 who completed the program by answering the post-intervention HRA. The follow-up HRA found that 26.2% of participants reported they ate 3 or more servings of vegetables per day compared to 13.6% at baseline (p= 0.03). In addition, at baseline 41% of participants were in the action or maintenance stage for eating 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day, compared to 59% at the one-year follow-up, a significant increase (p= 0.002). Other criteria assessed in HRA such as consumption of sweets/desserts and fats showed no significant differences. Thus, the results suggest that this intervention is a promising way to improve some dietary behaviors.