Motivations for Health and Their Associations With Lifestyle, Work Style, Health, Vitality, and Employee Productivity (original) (raw)

2014, Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

Investigate employees' underlying motivational regulatory styles toward healthy living and their associations with lifestyle, work style, health, vitality, and productivity. Methods: Regression analyses on cross-sectional data from Dutch employees (n = 629), obtained as baseline measurement before a workplace health promotion project. Results: Controlled regulation was not associated with smoking and alcohol use, and negatively associated with physical activity, healthy dietary habits, relaxation, and a balanced work style. Autonomous regulation was positively associated with physical activity, healthy dietary habits, and relaxation, and negatively associated with smoking and alcohol use. Healthy lifestyle and work style were associated with perceived health and vitality, which in turn were associated with employees' productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism). Conclusions: Internalization of the value of health is important to promote a healthy lifestyle and work style among employees, and has meaningful business implications. A healthy workforce is an asset for any organization. 1 Today, health is widely acknowledged as a codetermining factor for employee productivity, through which business performance may rise simultaneously. 2 Augmenting health in organizations may serve both health and business interests, which potentially enable a sustainable focus on health among large groups of individuals. The same applies for vitality at work. Whereas health, defined here as "a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being," 3 merely reflects a state, vitality at work particularly reflects a dynamic construct, as can be seen through an often used definition: "High levels of energy and mental resilience while working; the willingness to invest effort in one's work, and persistence even in the face of difficulties." 4 Health and vitality at work are generally understood as related constructs, 5 which are, at least partially, affected by similar determinants. Health behavior is an important determinant of both health and vitality at work. 5 Well-known health-related lifestyles are physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, healthy eating, and relaxation. 6 A healthy lifestyle among employees is believed to keep employees vital, and thereby contributes to their prolonged employability 7 and work ability. 8 Studies also indicate that employees with low-vigorous activity patterns, that is, less than three times a week spending at least 20 minutes on severe physical activity, 9 are more likely to report productivity loss. 10 Consequently, various companies now offer lifestyle programs to promote the health and vitality of their employees. In practice, however, it seems difficult to encourage employees to participate in lifestyle interventions.