A Worksite Health Promoting Program for Early Head Start and Head Start Workforce

Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS) staff comprise a large segment of the public sector workforce and experience numerous risk and chronic factors for medical conditions or symptoms. Few health and wellness workplace interventions, however, specifically focus on EHS/HS staff.

A train-the-trainer (TTT) approach was used to build capacity among directors and staff from 57 EHS/HS programs on how to strategically plan and implement a health promoting worksite program focusing on improving nutrition and physical activity practices among EHS/HS staff. Baseline and 3-month post-training questionnaires assessed EHS/HS staff changes on knowledge and practices related to nutrition and physical activity. Paired t-tests or chi² statistics assessed changes in questionnaire responses over time.

1,363 staff from 57 programs completed baseline and follow-up surveys. Staff had high knowledge regarding healthful dietary patterns at baseline. Over one-third of staff reported drinking soda with meals and almost 50% identified soda as their most common drink. Roughly one-third of staff also reported no physical activity in the prior week at baseline. Staff demonstrated significant improvements in dietary, nutrition, and physical activity practices. Staff also improved grocery shopping behaviors.

The TTT approach to disseminate an EHS/HS staff-focused health promotion program, "Eat Healthy, Stay Active!' provides a potentially promising strategy to build upon and disseminate more broadly to reach the over >300,000 EHS/HS staff workforce.