PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A landmark study published in Frontiers in Public Health shows that Provata Health’s digital health promotion program, Healthy Team Healthy U® (HTHU), generated substantial and sustained health outcomes among a diverse employee population. Provata physicians conducted a study over three years among thousands of employee participants in one of the largest studies of a digital health program ever conducted. The publication makes HTHU the only digital health program proven to achieve both physical and mental health benefits in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
“This is a milestone achievement for workplace wellness and the digital health industry,” said Provata Health CEO Alex Goldberg. “We have never seen a health promotion program publish durable health benefits this significant and this extensive.” The HTHU series of digital health programs targets a range of interrelated health behaviors and conditions including physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress, and depression.
Unlike weight loss and disease management programs, participation was not limited based on personal risk factors. “Making HTHU available to all employees is critical to the program’s success and counter to the current trend in the wellness industry,” Goldberg explained. “Many employees, particularly higher-risk individuals, are reluctant to enroll in a specialized wellness program that signals to their employer or their colleagues that they are unhealthy or have a certain condition. As a total health solution, individuals can participate without self-identifying as someone in need of a weight loss program, or a diabetes prevention program, or a stress program. Not only does a holistic approach encourage participation among high-risk employees, it is more outcome-effective. We are generating better results by addressing the interrelated physical and mental components of health.”
According to the study, HTHU lowered the obesity rate among participants by more than 30%, achieving an average weight loss of 4.8 percent among these participants. The sustained weight reduction is double the weight loss achieved by in-person translations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) diabetes prevention program (DPP), an intensive behavioral counseling program considered a benchmark for reducing risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure. “In contrast to programs like the DPP that rely upon lifestyle coaching, the program is administered by the participants themselves, an approach designed to maximize scalability, minimize costs, and cultivate a culture of wellness from within an organization,” Goldberg said.
Hypertensive participants achieved an average 8.8 percent reduction (13.1mm Hg) in systolic blood pressure and an average 7.68 percent reduction (7.3mm Hg) in diastolic blood pressure. “Hypertensive participants are experiencing reductions in blood pressure in line with first-line medications,” said Dr. Kerry Kuehl, a physician and one of the study co-investigators.
Behavioral changes reported among participants include an average 46 percent increase in days per week of physical activity, two times more strength training sessions per week, and three times more individuals achieving the national goal of five daily servings of fruits and vegetables. The program also generated a 41 percent reduction in employees reporting poor sleep quality, a condition linked to physical and mental health problems. Other mental health-related outcomes include 32 percent fewer participants reporting work-related stress, clinically significant reductions in depression scores, and increases in reported happiness.
“The mental health of workers is an area of increasing importance to employers, yet it is rarely integrated into workplace wellness initiatives focusing on physical activity,” Dr. Kuehl explained. “In addition to increased medical costs, stress and depression are major causes of absenteeism, presenteeism, and productivity losses. For instance, according to the CDC, patients with depression miss an average of 4.8 workdays and suffer 11.5 days of reduced productivity in just a 3-month period.”
Health promotion programs proven to work present an opportunity to measurably improve worker health, lowering rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and certain types of cancer. “Our goal at Provata is to usher in a new era of workplace wellness built on peer-reviewed outcomes,” said Goldberg. “Studies like this will transform that goal into a reality.”
About:
Provata Health is a digital health company delivering evidence-based workplace wellness and population health programs to health plans, hospital systems, and employers. Their flagship program series, Healthy Team Healthy U, is the culmination of more than two decades of clinical trials supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center of Disease Control (CDC). Healthy Team Healthy U is scientifically designed, tested, and proven to create a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.
