Prevalence and characteristics of campus-based employee wellness programs among United States accredited colleges and universities.

Abstract

Employee wellness programs (EWPs) aim to support positive changes in employees' modifiable behavioral health risk factors for disease prevention and management. This study described the prevalence and characteristics of EWPs in US accredited college and university campuses. Identification of the prevalence of EWPs and programming activities offered in 3039 accredited higher education institutions/campuses, and characteristics of these institutions/campuses were conducted, mainly through searching the institution's web page. Overall, 36%of the institutions/campuses offered EWPs, with a significantly larger percentage of 4-year public colleges/universities providing EWPs and wellness programming activities than the 4-year private colleges/universities and community colleges. When limiting the institutions/campuses to 4-year colleges and universities with at least 500 employees, the percentage of these institutions/campuses offering EWPs increased to 57.7%, which was comparable to the findings in the literature. The percentage of the institutions/campuses offering wellness programming activities ranged from 18.1%for injury prevention and ergonomics to 30.2%for stress management. The percentage of institutions/campuses offering injury prevention and ergonomics was significantly lower than the percentage of institutions/campuses offering other typical wellness activities. The prevalence of EWPs offered in accredited college and university campuses do not meet the national goal of 75%, which was set by Healthy People 2010.