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
Supervisor: Dr. Eli Puterman
Committee members: Dr. Guy Faulkner, Dr. Mark Beauchamp
Abstract:
Background. Research on employee well-being should employ a broader more interdisciplinary perspective extending past employee health and functioning specific to the workplace. Accordingly, healthcare worker (HCW) multidimensional well-being as an overarching concept should be inclusive of a broad range of context-free and work-family measures of ill-being and well-being that span multiple dimensions, including both physical and mental realms of life. As HCW ill-being and well-being have worsened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, individual-level behavioural interventions are needed to support the workforce. Exercise interventions — in particular, mHealth exercise interventions — have been successful in improving the health and well-being of highly stressed populations. More specifically, 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 (vs. waitlist control) condition. Whether positive treatment effects can extend to an array of multidimensional ill-being and well-being outcomes has yet to be explored.
Methods. The proposed study will employ data from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise for Healthcare Workers (COPE HCW) trial, a two-arm (exercise vs. waitlist control) parallel randomized controlled trial for low-active HCWs working at Providence Health Care centres 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 multidimensional well-being will be examined. Using intent-to-treat analyses with a structural equation modelling (SEM) growth model approach, treatment effects will be analyzed 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. It is hypothesized that there will be significant treatment effects in favour of improvements among the exercise condition (vs. waitlist control) for all ill-being and well-being outcomes.
Significance. Findings will help to describe the multidimensional well-being of HCWs during the pandemic, providing insight on a broad range of physical and psychological outcomes. Treatment effects will help to inform future workplace well-being interventions by identifying targets for intervention and by providing evidence that exercise can be used as a modality to support the physical and psychological well-being of HCWs.