This town made wellness a way of life - Wellsburg, W. Va worked with Sterling Drugs' Bayer Div. to study and decrease rate of cardiac arrests in the community

Business & Health, Dec, 1996 by Mary Lou Hurley, Lisa Schiff

In 1988, Wellsburg, W. Va., had one of the worst health profiles in the country: The incidence of heart disease was 29 percent above the national average. Today, the community of 11,000+ boasts a cardiovascular health profile that is among the best in the state. The impetus for the change came from Sterling Drug's Bayer Division, but Wellsburg's citizens and employers are the ones who proved that it's possible to get healthy and stay that way.

Bayer selected this mill town because of the population's cardiac ills. Thus began a two-year, multi-million dollar wellness project that blanketed the entire community with fitness messages and heart-healthy activities.

For Bayer, the goals were threefold: Conduct research. Help the people of Wellsburg. And reap the rewards of public relations. And indeed, the "unprecedented results"--evident when PacifiCare revisited Wellsburg last year--brought a wave of national attention that "far exceeded Bayer's publicity goals," says Karen Behnke, president of PacifiCare Wellness Co., the San Francisco-based employee fitness firm that administered the project.

TRIMMING DOWN, SHAPING UP

The project began when 10 PacifiCare staff members came to West Virginia to work with the Wellsburg health department and local health providers. They put out a call for volunteers and got more than 1,500 responses. Of those, 1,000 were selected. Initial screenings found that two out of three had cholesterol counts at or above 200, the maximum acceptable level; one in five smoked and three out of four rarely exercised. The average volunteer was 30 pounds overweight.

The fitness blitz wasn't just for these 1,000 participants. Community-wide walks and healthy potluck suppers cropped up everywhere, coordinated by volunteers. Classes in everything from aerobics to cholesterol, blood pressure and stress management were scheduled almost daily. Most cost $25 up front, anyone who completed a course received a refund.

There were a host of other incentives: Individuals qualified for health-related gift certificates for "outstanding wellness spirit" and actual health improvement. Civic organizations got monetary awards if 95 percent of their members participated in screenings. Residents who pitched in frequently earned volunteer-of-the-month awards.

PacifiCare paid close attention to details, Behnke recalls: "We worked with restaurants to develop heart-healthy menus and had the local supermarket move healthy foods to eye level. The town butcher agreed to order lowfat cuts of meat and low- or no-fat dairy products. We even had the one bank in town flash fitness messages on its electronic sign every day."

Two years--and $4 million later, nearly half the original 1,000 volunteers remained in the study. Fifty seven percent of the smokers had quit. Overall wellness scores based on a combination of cholesterol levels, blood pressure, pulse rate and weight--jumped nearly 15 percent. The average fitness score, a reflection of the frequency of aerobic exercise, strength training and stretching, went up nearly 50 percent.

WELLNESS HITS THE WORKPLACE

After PacifiCare's contract with Bayer ended in 1990, Bayer underwent a succession of buyouts that left no one available to follow up on Wellsburg or discuss the company's involvement. But PacifiCare revisited the site last year. What they found was gratifying: A screening of 182 of the original volunteers and a survey of community leaders revealed that residents had maintained their weight loss of an average of 3.5 pounds in total weight and 8.6 pounds in excess body fat (the additional pounds of fat were converted to muscle), and most of the reduction in cholesterol, blood pressure and pulse. Although overall health had fallen slightly below 1990 figures, the average wellness score still topped the 1988 baseline by 12 percent and the average fitness score by 42 percent.

Healthier residents make better employees, the follow-up found. In 1995, close to two out of three of the participants had not missed a single day of work to illness in the past year. In 1988, only 57 percent had perfect attendance. Short-term absences, defined as a period of less than four days, were reported by just one volunteer in five.

Behnke was especially surprised to find that "the changes we instituted were maintained in the restaurants and butcher shop. Even the position of "wellness coordinator," added to the school system survived budget cuts. And smoking among Wellsburg's teachers has all but disappeared: The rate "dropped dramatically" from 20 percent in 1988 to less than 1 percent as of last year.

Darlene Frederick, coowner of Tom Sawyer's Cafe, opened her shop three years ago. At that time, she notes, residents had already become more health conscious and were looking for healthy alternatives. Fredericks was happy to comply. "We make everything from scratch so we're able to monitor exactly what goes into our foods. And we're careful about using fat and grease," she says.

Weirton Steel Corp., the state's largest employer and a major presence in town, also continues to carry the wellness torch. Initially inspired by seeing company executives get involved in the community project, Weirton offers everything from aerobic classes to nutritional counseling to its 22,000 employees, dependents and retirees.