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Study: Free Duke Program Enhances Health

Research shows employee wellness programs benefit diet, physical activity

On her journey to gain better control of her health and wellness, Toki Alizadeh began bringing her lunch to work every day. Photo by Bryan Roth.
On her journey to gain better control of her health and wellness, Toki Alizadeh began bringing her lunch to work every day. Photo by Bryan Roth.

For years, Toki Alizadeh had a tough time getting motivated about her health.

Hip and ankle surgeries made exercise hard and an illness known as polycystic ovary syndrome decreased her metabolism while increasing blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. At times, it felt like she didn’t have control of her own body, which hit a high of 165 pounds in 2014. 

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But the help Alizadeh needed was easy to find with LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program. She first had a HealthCheck, a free, confidential health assessment, and that led her to Steps to Health, which connects employees with a health coach. During her time in Steps to Health, she changed her diet, found cycling classes and lost 10 pounds.

“To me, it’s hard to talk to friends or family and hear the same kind of encouragement,” said Alizadeh, a quality manager at the Duke Heart Center. “But when you talk to a professional, they have all kinds of expertise to improve choices and what you’re doing, which is even more motivating.”

A study released in February by Duke faculty and staff shows that guidance provided by staff from LIVE FOR LIFE in Steps to Health and its partner lifestyle program, Pathways to Change, led to better decisions around eating more fruits and vegetables, lowering intake of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, and decreased intake of fatty foods. Modest increases were also seen in exercise and a reduction of sedentary time.

Using the programs encouraged positive changes for Duke employees dealing with obesity and poor health choices.

“Motivation from participation was really key, because those people did better overall,” said Marissa Stroo, a research analyst with the Department of Community and Family Medicine who helped organize the study. “The more you participate, the more you’ll change your behaviors, which leads to weight change.” 

Stroo said the biggest hurdles in behavior change revolve around diet, mostly because habits of eating fast food or not focusing on fruits and vegetables can be hard to break.

“But those choices pay off over time,” Stroo said. “What we’ve seen from other populations is that people who don’t do those things or don’t participate in these programs may gain weight.” 

In Alizadeh’s case, the Steps to Health program taught her about identifying good carbohydrates and choosing to drink coconut water for potassium instead of eating bananas, which gave her unneeded sugars. 

“Once I learned about all the things I could do to improve my diet, I also wanted to change my exercise habits,” she said. That included starting cycling classes and TRX training, a type of suspension training that works to improve strength through use of ropes and webbing. She also alternates between an exercise ball, kneeling chair and standing work station to avoid a sedentary workday.

“This is a free program for us, so why shouldn’t we take advantage of it?” Alizadeh said. “There’s nothing to lose.”