Health benefits achieved through the Seventh-Day Adventist Wellness Challenge program

Abstract

Context: The Wellness Challenge program introduces the philosophy of the healing power of God and stresses the importance of developing a sense of spirituality in conjunction with the promotion of good health.

Objective: To employ scientific rigor to the outcome measures of the Seventh-Day Adventist Wellness Challenge program.

Design: A 2-tailed, paired sample t test.

Setting: East Pasco Medical Center in Zephyrhills, Fla.

Participants: 165 participants.

Intervention: Presurvey, 21-day outpatient wellness intervention; postsurvey, 6 weeks after completion of the program.

Main outcome measures: Changes in behaviors related to cigarette smoking, alcohol use, eating patterns, exercise, water consumption, rest, relaxation, and time spent outdoors, as well as demographic data.

Results: Statistically significant differences were found between the pre- and postprogram clinical and laboratory test results for the participants' blood pressure, weight, glucose levels, and cholesterol at .05 alpha. Furthermore, self-health improvements measured by a pre- and postsurvey response confirmed statistically significant improvement in participants' willingness to improve their lifestyle behaviors for a potentially greater quality of life.

Conclusion: The Wellness Challenge program offers ways to reduce risk factors related to chronic disease while improving the quality of life within an adult population by allowing people to slowly incorporate newly acquired tools into their everyday life.