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Essay On Wellness Programs

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There is a heightened focus on maintaining good health and the many benefits that come as a result. Increasingly, more companies are opting to implement wellness programs to help support and facilitate their employees in achieving better health habits. Types of programs offered include smoking cessation, weight and stress management, and access to on-site resources like health fairs, seminars, and counseling with registered dietitians. Results of healthy employees also help the employer by reducing healthcare costs, improving work productivity, and boosting office morale (Mujtaba & Cavico, 2013). Different techniques can be used in wellness programs: carrots and sticks. While one offers positive reinforcement through incentives (carrots), …show more content…

A randomized controlled study will be conducted to test the effectiveness of implementing a penalty system as motivation in a smoking cessation wellness program initiative. This study will take place at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California. Participants (n=500) will be recruited through email solicitation using a non-probability sampling technique. Purposive sampling will allow for a specifically targeted group, in this case smokers, to be solicited. Qualifications to meet the needs of this study will require smokers to have been smoking one cigarette or more per day for at least one year or longer. Age 18 years and over are eligible to participate. While the sample size of this study is large, it is suggestive of only one company in California and may not be generalizable across the United States. Of the 500 participants, two groups will be created, and participants will be assigned by block randomization to reduce bias. One group will remain a control group while the other will receive a penalty at the end of the year if they failed to quit smoking. The independent variables (IV) are penalty or no penalty for smoking cessation. The penalty used to encourage behavior change will be an increase to their health insurance, which will take effect the subsequent year. The dependent categorical variables (DV) measured will be continued smoking and smoking cessation. The study will run for one year, at which time participants will be asked to

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