The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a study on workplace health promotion programs (WHPPs) and found that just under half of employees have access to them and among those who do have access, just about half utilize them.

The study is titled “Availability of and Participation in Workplace Health Promotion Programs by Sociodemographic, Occupation, and Work Organization Characteristics in US Workers” and is published in the “American Journal of Health Promotion”. Authors found that 47% of workers have access to WHPPs and 58% of those with access take advantage of their programs.

They found that the availability of WHPPs increased with education, family income and personal earnings. Workers between the ages of 30 and 64 were more likely than younger workers to participate in WHPPs. Non-Hispanic black workers were more likely than Non-Hispanic white workers to participate in WHPPs.

They also found that there was a difference in participation depending on occupations. Arts, design, entertainment, sports, media, management and community and social service occupations all had participation rates between 66 and 68 percent. Food preparation and servers, as well as construction and extraction had rates between 42 and 45 percent, while farming, fishing and forestry only say 26 percent.

Employers with more employees were more likely to offer WHPPs, and workers with nonstandard contracts like independent or contract workers, workers who are paid by the hour and workers on evening shifts were less likely to have available WHPPs. Workers who supervised other workers were 13% more likely to participate than non-supervisors.

The authors found barriers to WHPPs like time constraints, a lack of awareness, little to no supervisory support or no perceived need.

“Workers have different needs and circumstances, depending on factors such as occupation, working night shifts or being paid by the hour,” said Dr. Rebecca Tsai, epidemiologist and lead author of the study. “We recommend that employers tailor their workplace health promotion programs based on their specific work organization characteristics in order to maximize participation.”

Read the study here and read more here.