Impact of an Eight Week Program on the Wellbeing of Ohio State Undergraduates
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Date
2013-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
College students who desire to achieve academically may sacrifice health and quality of life to get ahead. When this is the case, habits that contribute to poor health and wellbeing can continue throughout the lifespan and result in negative health consequences in later years. Many of the roots of these habits are lifestyle factors that can be addressed through adopting health and wellbeing behaviors in college.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an eight-week wellbeing promotion program delivered to thirty Ohio State University students from various employers and organizations on campus. This group met weekly for ninety minutes, with participants receiving knowledge and skills training (time management, budget-making, healthy grocery shopping, etc.) along with weekly outside assignments targeted at improving their wellbeing in the five dimensions of wellbeing (physical, career, community, social, and financial) outlined in Gallup’s Wellbeing. This intervention group was compared to a group of nine students who received no intervention.
Both groups took Gallup’s fifteen minute Wellbeing Finder assessment as a pre-test, post-test, and four-week follow up to measure changes in individual subjective wellbeing in five broad wellbeing dimensions: career, social, financial, physical, and community wellbeing. At the conclusion of the assessment, the participants received a score (1-10) in each of the five wellbeing dimensions along with a composite wellbeing score (0-100). Changes in these five dimension scores and composite score were analyzed to determine changes in individual subjective wellbeing and thus the effectiveness of the intervention.
Statistically significant increases (95% confidence interval) in composite wellbeing scores were seen both at post-test (p = .0056) and follow-up (p = .0023) in Balanced Buckeye Program participants when looked at versus the comparison group. Additionally, statistically significant increases (95% confidence interval) in physical (p = .038, p = .0145), career (p = .0199, p = .00299), and social (p = .0059, p = .0003) wellbeing scores were seen both at post-test and follow-up in Balanced Buckeye Program participants when looked at versus the comparison group. Community and financial wellbeing did not increase significantly in Balanced Buckeye Program participants in either post-test or follow-up.
The program showed a significant impact on wellbeing of participants in composite, physical, career, and social wellbeing. These improvements show that the Balanced Buckeye Program had a positive impact on the quality of life of the undergraduate participants, and should be a valued part of the Student Life experience moving forward.
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Keywords
Health Education, Health Promotion, Wellness, Wellbeing