Sustained Long-Term Effectiveness of an Energy Management Training Course on Employee Vitality and Purpose in Life

Purpose: Programs designed to sustainably improve employee well-being are urgently needed but insufficiently researched. This study evaluates the long-term effectiveness of a commercial well-being intervention in a worksite setting.

Design: A pre/postintervention repeated analysis with follow-up at 6, 12, and 18 months.

Setting: Office-based worksites (for-profit, nonprofit, and mixed work-type; n = 8).

Participants: One hundred sixty-three employees with a mean age of 47 (11) years (57% female).

Intervention: A 2.5-day group-based behavioral program emphasizing vitality and purpose in life (PiL).

Measures: Rand Medical Outcomes Survey (MOS) 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) with a focus on vitality (primary outcome), Ryff PiL Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Profile of Mood States, Rand MOS Sleep Scale, physical activity, body weight, blood pressure, and blood measures for glucose and lipids at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months.

Analysis: General linear models with repeated measures for mean values at baseline and follow-up.

Results: At 18-month follow-up, sustained improvements were observed for vitality, general health, and mental health domains of SF-36 and PiL ( < .001 for all measures). Sleep, mood, vigor, physical activity, and blood pressure were also improved at 18 months ( < .05 for all measures).

Conclusions: An intensive 2.5-day intervention showed sustained improvement in employee quality of life, PiL, and other measures of well-being over 18 months.