Getting smarter and maybe wiser.

Abstract

This issue contains the second part of an important series of reviews of worksite health promotion activities. These reviews provide the most extensive synthesis to date of the research literature on the health impact of workplace health promotion efforts. The editors are to be congratulated for requiting a very thorough approach to reviewing relevant literature, including references for each of five important heahh promotion components: policy, employee education, family education, manager/supervisor training, and corporate community support. They also make the important observation that it is difficult to interpret the results of interventions that are not based on a well-explicated theory. An important innovation in this series is consistent rules of evidence so that the relative strength of evidence can be compared for interventions used to reduce the same and different risk factors. Encouragement can be taken from the fact that for the majority of risks considered, the quality of the research methodology is considered suggestive, indicative, acceptable, or conclusive. Health professionals toiling in the difficult vineyards of worksite health promotion can take heart that there is a growing body of literature suggesting that their determined efforts can bear fruit. Before running off to trumpet the good news, however, let us take stock of where we are. There are still painfully few randomized intervention