Understanding the role and responsibility of leaders in building a culture of health and wellness in an academic setting and how it shapes the distribution of presenteeism

Worksites across the country provide a large, captive audience of over 130 million people for prevention of chronic disease risk factors. The current research explored how to better understand participation in workplace health promotion programs and identify the steps leaders and organizations can take to motivate participation. We also sought to determine if there was a relationship between health-related work limitations, one measure of presenteeism, and chronic disease and health risk factors, among university system employees. Employee focus groups yielded rich information such as specific factors that influence health, facilitators and barriers to participation in employee health and wellness programs at their institution. The individual leader interview results point to five key conclusions regarding leaders\u27 role and responsibility to build a culture of health at their institution. From these data we can see the significance of creating a culture of health and wellness at institutions that make up the university system. The findings from our study may contribute to the development of improved employee health and wellness programs for employees in an academic setting in the future