Jeffrey S. Hampl

Christopher A. Taylor

In-person interviews were conducted with a national probability sample of 1970 nonsmokers. Of these, 757 men and 754 women were married to nonsmokers and 197 men and 262 women were married to smokers. Both men and women married to smokers were more likely to have unhealthy diets than men and women married to nonsmokers. These trends were more pronounced for men married to women smokers than women married to men smokers. These men were more likely to have diets higher in fat, cholesterol, alcohol, coffee, and soft drinks and lower in a number of vitamin rich foods.

Louis Yen

Marilyn Pearce Edington

Timothy McDonald

David Hirschland

Health risk changes were examined among the 12,984 active General Motors employees who completed health risk appraisals in two consecutive years as part of the LifeSteps Health Promotion program. Statistically significant improvements were found in net change in risk factors (positive changes minus negative changes), percent of employees at high risk, and percent of employees at low risk. There was a dose-response relationship between health risk improvements and the number of programs a person participated in, but this was eliminated after the number of baseline high risks and eligibility for the high-risk programs was controlled for.

Linda S. Pescatello

Donna Murphy

Jeannine Vollono

Elizabeth Lynch

James Bernene

Dino Costanzo

A health promotion program was offered to all 1804 hospital employees who were eligible for benefits; 621 participated and 278 participated for four years. The program consisted of cardiovascular screening, results counseling, and encouragement to participate in educational and behavioral support programs, and participation incentives. Among those who participated in health screenings the first and fourth year, improvements were seen in cholesterol ratios, lipoprotein values, and blood glucose, but they also gained weight. On the average, improvements were slightly greater for employees who did not participate in structured behavior change programs offered by the hospital.

Kathleen Poole

Karol Kumpfer

Marjorie Pett

A health promotion program consisting of an annual health screening and financial rebates for good health practices was offered to all 2540 employees of Salt Lake County in Utah. Changes in health risks were measured for the 304 full time employees who participated in assessments for four years. Significant improvements were seen in body fat, cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, seat belt use, and overall physical health among the high risk group and the low risk group. There was a net increase in the number of people in the high risk group over the four year period.

Peggy O’Halloran

DeAnn Lazovich

Ruth E. Patterson

Lisa Harnack

Simone French

Sue J. Curry

A study of 2111 patients in the primary care clinic of a large health maintenance organization showed that patients who exercised on a regular basis were more likely to be successful in making dietary changes than patients who did not exercise regularly.

Research

James H. Rimmer

Barth B. Riley

Stephen S. Rubin

The Physical Activity and Disability Survey (PADS) is a new measure for assessing physical activity patterns of persons with disabilities and chronic health conditions. The psychometric properties of PADS were tested as part of a health promotion program for 103 people who suffered from diabetes. Factor analysis revealed four subscales: Exercise, Time Indoors, Leisure Time Physical Activity, and Household Activities. One week test-retest ranged from .78 to .95 for the four scales. All scales were significantly correlated with peak VO₂ scores, and different scales were correlated with relevant exercise-related activities.