Heart Check: The Development and Evolution of an Organizational Heart Health Assessment

Abstract

Purpose.The purpose of this article is to document the development, testing, and application of an organizational assessment tool used to measure employer support for heart health. Additional information is presented on its future research and applications plan.Design.This article represents the pooling of results from multiple studies using a variety of designs, including pilot tests, cross-sectional analyses, and quasi-experiments.Setting.Worksites covering the spectrum of employers across industry types and size, and throughout all of New York State.Subjects.Over 10,000 New York employees and 1000 New York employers are represented in the multiple phases of this research.Measures.Heart Check is a 226-item inventory designed to measure such features in the worksite as organizational foundations, administrative supports, tobacco control, nutrition support, physical activity support, stress management, screening services, and company demographics. Additional side studies used professional judgments and behavioral surveys.Results.As an assessment tool Heart Check shows evidence for reliability and validity. Applications of the instrument show characteristics that define high-scoring companies, quasi standards for New York employers, and, when applied during interventions, positive changes in organizational support levels.Conclusions.A relatively inexpensive, easy-to-use, and metrically tested instrument exists for measuring the construct of organizational support for employee heart health. The instrument shows promise as part of a system to enhance heart health through public health-based interventions in the workplace.