Contributing factors to self-management success : moderators of physical activity and perceived health status in a randomized controlled trial workplace health intervention

Abstract

The present study examined data collected from a randomized-control trial (RCT) of workplace wellness prevention programs. Data were collected from the Act Healthy program, a group workplace wellness intervention adapted from the Stanford Patient Education Research Center Self-Management programs, and Eye on Health, an individual control intervention based upon a standard disease management model. Path analysis was used to assess for moderation of health outcomes (physical activity and perceived health status) across groups. Measures of self-efficacy, depression, and interpersonal relationships were proposed moderator variables, and it was predicted that participants low in self-efficacy, high in depression, or low in interpersonal relationships would benefit more from the Act Healthy group self-management intervention. Results showed no significant effects for five of the six predicted interactions; the interaction effect for interpersonal relationships on perceived health status was significant and was found in the predicted direction. Follow up simple-slope analyses, however, were non-significant. These results suggest that self-efficacy, depression, and interpersonal relationships failed to significantly moderate the relationship between intervention condition and health outcome. Limitations of this research include the high-functioning nature of the sample: respondents, on average, reported high general sense of self-efficacy, low depression, and high perceived social support. The restricted range of these variables of interest may have impacted the ability of analyses to detect interaction effects. Future directions for research include examining gender as a variable of interest as well as assessing for interaction effects in a lower functioning population sample.