Title: COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise for Healthcare Workers (COPE HCW) trial: Secondary analyses examining the effects of at-home exercise on healthcare workers’ multidimensional well-being
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Eli Puterman
Committee members: Dr. Mark Beauchamp, Dr. Guy Faulkner
Defence Chair: Dr. Nicola Hodges
Abstract:
Background. Current research on employee well-being largely entails focus on physical and mental health and illness, as well as functioning specific to the workplace. Yet, more recent conceptualizations of well-being extend beyond the presence or absence of health or illness to concepts of thriving or languishing, measured using an outcome-wide measurement approach. Accordingly, healthcare worker (HCW) multidimensional well-being as an overarching concept should be inclusive of a broad range of global and work-family measures of ill-being and well-being that span multiple dimensions, including physical, psychological, and psychosocial realms of life. A recent 12-week mHealth exercise intervention for HCWs in Vancouver, BC demonstrated significant treatment effects for depressive symptoms, burnout symptoms, and absenteeism among those randomized to an exercise versus waitlist control condition. Whether positive treatment effects of exercise can extend to an array of multidimensional ill-being and well-being outcomes has yet to be explored.
Methods. Data was employed from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise for Healthcare Workers (COPE HCW) trial, a two-arm parallel randomized controlled trial for low-active HCWs working at Providence Health Care centers across Vancouver, BC. The effects of engagement with a suite of exercise applications for 80 minutes per week for 12 weeks (vs. waitlist control) on indicators of multidimensional ill-being and well-being were examined. Treatment effects for physical health symptoms, recent global stress, work-to-personal life interference, overall physical health, overall mental/emotional health, life satisfaction, psychological flourishing, resilience, and work-to-personal life enhancement were analyzed using intent-to-treat analyses with a structural equation modelling (SEM) growth model approach.
Results. By the end of the trial, significant treatment effects were observed for all outcomes, such that those in the exercise condition (vs. waitlist control) reported significant reductions in ill-being and improvements in well-being measures. Adherence to the intervention decreased over time, and treatment effects were largest for those who engaged with the exercise apps the most.
Conclusions. Findings will help inform future workplace well-being interventions by identifying targets for improvement (e.g., adherence to mHealth exercise) and by providing evidence that mHealth exercise can be used as a modality to support the multidimensional ill-being and well-being of HCWs.