Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
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The study’s objective was to examine the impact of a dance aerobic exercise intervention on workplace stress, absenteeism, and presenteeism (being present at work when ill or otherwise unfit to work).
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The study used an interrupted time series design to compare participants’ survey responses before and after they participated in the intervention.
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The study suggested there was a positive relationship between the intervention and workplace stress (stress levels were higher after the intervention rather than lower), but no relationship between the intervention and absenteeism or presenteeism.
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The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not account for trends in outcomes before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the dance intervention; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Aerobic dance class
Features of the Intervention
Previous research has examined the effects of wellness programs on employee well-being, including workplace stress, absenteeism, and presenteeism. This study examined a wellness program consisting of a 60-minute aerobic dance class offered once a week for 30 days. The program was for offered to full-time long-term contract employees in healthcare.
Features of the Study
The study used an interrupted time series design to compare self-reported outcomes before and after the intervention. The sample was 19 full-time long-term contract employees working for healthcare organizations in the New York City metropolitan area. Just over half of participants were female, and three-quarters had at least a bachelor’s degree. Participants ranged in age from 29 to 61.
Data were gathered from two surveys, a Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Health Performance Questionnaire (HPQ), which were administered by email pre-intervention and 30 days post-intervention. The 14 items on the PSS include questions like “in the last month, how often have you found yourself thinking about things you have to accomplish?” The HPQ measures absenteeism as the number of hours of work the employee missed that the employer expected them to work over seven days or four weeks. The HPQ measures presenteeism by how employees rate their overall job performance on the days they worked during the past four weeks
The authors used paired sample t-tests to compare workplace stress levels before and after the intervention, and compared absenteeism and presenteeism before and after the intervention.
Findings
Health and Safety
- The study suggested that participants’ workplace stress levels were higher after the intervention than before. The study suggested there was no change in participants’ absenteeism or presenteeism after the intervention compared to before.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The authors compared the outcomes of participants measured before and after they participated in the aerobic dance class. CLEAR’s guidelines require that the authors must observe outcomes for multiple periods before the intervention to rule out the possibility that participants had increasing or decreasing trends in the outcomes examined before enrollment in the program. That is, if participants who had increasing workplace stress tended to enroll in the program, we might anticipate further increases over time, whether they participated in the program. Without knowing the trends before program enrollment, we cannot distinguish what part of the change over time is likely due to this trend versus due to the intervention.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not account for trends in outcomes before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the dance exercise program; other factors are likely to have contributed.