The problem was, it didn’t work.

After receiving interest from nearly 5000 volunteers, the researchers randomly selected 3300 people to participate in the program and then followed everyone for a year to see how it affected their health and productivity. One year later, the results were stunningly disappointing. Aside from the fact that people who did the wellness program were more likely to have had a medical check and felt that their employer placed a priority on health, they had no fewer sick days or medical expenses, nor were they more likely to go to the gym or run a marathon. They weren’t even more productive at work or less likely to quit their job.

What was interesting about the iThrive study was that when the researchers crunched their data as though they had done an observational study (which is usually done when assessing wellness programs), they showed that the program was effective. An observational study doesn’t have the “randomly controlled” factor in it. That is to say, it doesn’t allow for things like the fact that people who sign up for wellness programs are more likely to be healthier anyway.

As a health journalist with an autoimmune disease, there’s a good reason I’m into wellness. I’ve done all manner of yoga challenges, boot camps, cleanses, and retreats in an effort to look after my health. And I’m far from being alone. I was recently in the U.S. at a conference aimed at the growing $3.7 trillion wellness industry. Apparently workplace wellness alone represents a sizeable and growing market and is worth $40.7 billion globally. But all this got me thinking about all the “proven” health initiatives I’ve invested my time and money into over the years. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of them have actually worked.

It’s no secret that most people who diet will regain one-third of their lost weight in the first year after losing it and that in the following three to five years they’ll likely be back to where they started. For many smokers it may take 30 or more quit attempts before being successful. One concerned health consultant and blogger is so worried about the validity of workplace wellness programs, he’s offered a three million dollar reward to anyone who can prove their strategy actually works.

Considering all this, the case in support of wellness programs is looking pretty precarious. But after having a bit of a think, I realised that there are two obvious reasons that the iThrive program wouldn’t have “worked" for me.

 

1. I probably wouldn’t have stuck to the health activities after the classes finished.

I’ve learned the hard way that there’s no point in signing up for eight-weeks of stress-reducing tai chi if I’m going to be chronically sleep deprived because of my work-overload. Nor is a revolutionary new vegan diet going to improve my health if I’m going to replace meat with low-nutrient highly processed food. For the sake of my regular readers, I’ll refer you to my piece Stop Looking for the ONE Thing That Will Cure You at this point because I’m starting to sound like a broken record when I bang on week-in and week-out about all the evidence demonstrating that that having good health requires taking a whole-life approach. (You know the drill – getting enough sleep AND exercising regularly AND eating healthy food AND reducing chronic stress…)