Workplace Wellness climate and Substance Abuse Prevention in Small Businesses: A Cluster Randomized Trial and Psychometric Analysis

Organizational Wellness & Learning Sys, Fort Worth TX

Investigators

Abstract

Title: Workplace Wellness Climate and Substance Abuse Prevention in Small Businesses: A Cluster Randomized Trial and Psychometric Analysis Project Summary (Abstract) Many economic costs of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use stem from decreased productivity due to worker absences and illness. While most of the research is conducted in large organizations, small businesses need the most assistance. The Small Business Wellness Initiative (SBWI) was implemented to adapt and evaluate the Team Awareness program. Team Awareness is based on a concept of workplace prevention that targets risk and protective factors at three levels: employee, workgroup, and organization. At the organizational level, Team Awareness targets both risk factors (e.g., drinking culture that tolerates drinking on the job) and protective climates (e.g., perceived coworker practices of exercise, healthy eating, and temperate drinking) as these are assumed to either promote or prevent AOD risks. Though there is evidence that these climate factors are associated with substance use and health outcomes, extant studies have only analyzed climate at the individual-level of perceptions, and have focused on risky climates. This proposal identifies a protective and group-aggregated measure of climate, organizational wellness, posited to reduce the risks of illness and absences due to substance use and other unhealthy behavior. The organizational wellness climate (OWC) measure and other established climate measures were assessed with questionnaires administered at three time periods during the SBWI. The proposed project has two aims: (1) examine the factor structure of the climate questionnaire and determine the most reliable and valid brief organizational wellness climate measure that can be distinguished from other climate factors, and (2) test the impact of a substance abuse prevention programs on organizational-level climate and individual-level AOD risk in small businesses. The identification and validation of a new short-form organizational wellness climate measure can help researchers and businesses in their health promotion and AOD prevention efforts. By testing a model of prevention effectiveness, this study will contribute to scientific understanding of how to intervene to create healthy work climates, reduce AOD risk, and improve health in the underserved population of small businesses.