Examining the Impact of Wellness Champions on the Effectiveness of a Workplace Health and Well-Being Program

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of Desire2Move (D2M) implementation fidelity by Wellness Champions on program effectiveness. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Years 1, 3, and 5 of D2M; an annual peer support health and well-being initiative for university employees. Participants: D2M participants included 422 employees from 28 teams; however, only 144 provided survey data (34.1% response rate). Intervention: During the 8-week program, departments competed as teams to accumulate the greatest average physical activity (PA) minutes. Each team selected a Wellness Champion who delivered program information. Each team member recorded PA minutes with MapMyFitness. Measures: An electronic survey assessed program implementation fidelity and program satisfaction. Analysis: Median split (median [Mdn] = 21.2) categorized teams into "high" (n = 14; Mdn = 24.0, range = 21.4-25.0) and "low" (n = 14; Mdn = 19.4, range = 14.3-21.0) implementation groups. Independent samples t tests evaluated differences between groups on program satisfaction and team program average PA minutes. Results: Groups were significantly different for program satisfaction, t(26) = -2.76, P = .011, and team program average PA minutes, t(26) = -2.40, P = .024. The "high" implementation group reported greater program satisfaction (mean [M] = 12.6, standard deviation [SD] = 1.8) and team program average PA minutes (M = 2104.4, SD = 807.4) than the "low" implementation group (program satisfaction M = 11.1, SD = 1.1; team program average minutes M = 1340.8, SD = 875.8). Conclusion: Wellness Champions positively impacted employee PA participation and program satisfaction.