Safety & Health Improvement: Enhancing Law Enforcement Departments (SHIELD)

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University have developed a science-based, team-centered, scripted peer-taught program for fire fighters improving diet and exercise behavior while reducing injury rates and costs. Those investigators are partnering with local law enforcement agencies in Oregon and SW Washington to adapt, apply and assess this work-based program among a new high risk group to improve the health and safety of law enforcement officers (LEOs). Fire fighters' work structure is a natural fit for a team-centered format, and teammates' social support appeared to partially mediate the intervention's positive outcomes. Although conducive to team formation, LEOs' work lacks the established team structure of fire fighters. This proposal will apply the team-centered intervention to LEOs and in the process, learn more about teams as vehicles of health behavior change, and their relationship with outcomes and other potential mediating variables in a multilevel ecological analytic framework.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cardiovascular Diseases; Cancer; Physical Activity; Stress, Psychological; Health Promotion; Nutrition
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Behavioral: Team-based intervention

Detailed Description

Following a 3 month pilot study with four teams, we will enroll 14 precincts and 80 teams (approximately 470 participants) of LEO work groups for a prospective, clustered randomized 2-year assessment of the intervention (40 intervention and 40 testing-only, control-condition teams). Participants will be evaluated at baseline, 12, and 24. Primary study aims are; 1) Implement a randomized controlled efficacy trial of the SHIELD intervention, a peer-led, team-based occupational wellness program, and assess its behavioral and occupational outcomes, 2) Determine relations among variables in the chain from exposure of LEO subjects to specific intervention components to changes in mediating variables to behavior changes and occupational outcomes, and 3) Perform a cost analysis to determine the economic benefit of this LEO worksite health promotion program.

The intervention involves a scripted peer-taught interactive curriculum, which is delivered as twelve, one-hour weekly sessions incorporated into a team's usual work time activities, with four follow-up booster sessions after twelve months. The curriculum is designed to build understanding, healthy decision making skills and engender the social support of teammates; its content and scope reflects the core lifestyles activities used with fire fighters, along with adaptations for the needs of LEOs in domains of the team-building, family support and psychological health.

Participant assessments include established survey instruments, physiological measures and selected laboratory parameters of outcomes and potential mediating variables at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels. Intervention delivery and fidelity will be assessed. Multilevel and latent growth modeling and mediation analyses will be used to assess outcomes and the relationships among variables. At proposal completion there will be an evidenced-based, exportable occupational safety and health program for LEOs. Its critical components will be defined, and its benefits clearly determined.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 489
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oregon
    • Portland, Oregon, United States, 97239
      • Oregon Health and Science University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• member of a participating Law Enforcement Organization

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Testing Only
Experimental: Testing & Intervention	Behavioral: Behavioral: Team-based intervention; The intervention involves a scripted peer-taught interactive curriculum, which is delivered as twelve, one-hour weekly sessions incorporated into a team's usual work time activities, with four follow-up booster sessions after twelve months.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
BMI	January 2011-Dec 2014
Fruit and Vegetable Intake	January 2011-Dec 2014
Physical Activity	January 2011-Dec 2014
Stress	January 2011-Dec 2014
Sleep	January 2011-Dec 2014
Alcohol Use	January 2011-Dec 2014
Tobacco Use	January 2011-Dec 2014

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Blood Pressure	January 2011-Dec 2014
Percent Body Fat	January 2011-Dec 2014
Lipids and Lipoproteins	January 2011-Dec 2014
Glucose	January 2011-Dec 2014
Fasting Insulin	January 2011-Dec 2014
Cost-Effective Analysis	January 2011-Dec 2014

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oregon Health and Science University
• Collaborators: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Kerry S Kuehl, MD, PhD, Oregon Health and Science University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 19, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 19, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): January 20, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): October 30, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 28, 2015
• Last Verified: October 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Cardiovascular Diseases; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: e6309