Test@Work Study: Evaluation of Attitudes and Uptake Within Employee Health Checks in the Construction Industry (Test@Work)

Test@Work: Evaluation of Attitudes and Uptake Within Employee Health Checks in the Construction Industry

This project is called Test@Work. In this project the investigators will offer general health checks and tailored health advice to up to 650 employees in the construction industry at sites across the East Midlands. The investigators will assess reach and uptake, and evaluate the views and perceptions of employees, managers and the delivery team. Health checks will include Body Mass Index (BMI; weight/height), waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, mental health screen, sexual health consultation and an opt-in rapid screening test for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Employees will be provided with a resource pack with information and signposting around physical activity, diabetes risk, diet, and musculoskeletal health. A digital resource providing information and signposting about workplace health screening and HIV testing will be developed and provided to managers at the participating worksites 2 weeks before their health check event.

Employees will be offered an additional text messaging service involving receipt of a series of messages with advice around HIV and testing alongside general health information. Employees will complete post-health check exit questionnaires and an exit interview. Managers will complete a post-event evaluation questionnaire and post-event interview. Mixed-methods evaluation will include assessment of reach, uptake, and intervention implementation processes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: HIV
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Test@Work

Detailed Description

The investigators will collect evaluation data with employees and company representatives.

Employees: will complete exit-questionnaires and be invited to a brief exit interview.

The investigators will collect by anonymous questionnaire: age, gender, country of birth, ethnicity, postcode, sexual orientation, employment status (FT/PT, permanent, agency, contract worker), reasons for attending, health perceptions, prior HIV testing history, influence of work on health, perceptions of employers provision for health and wellbeing, perceptions towards HIV testing in the workplace, range of tests undertaken, views about the workplace health check and future health intentions. Personal identifiers will not be collected and questionnaire data will not be provided to employers. Those employees who agree to be interviewed after the health check will be invited to a brief independent confidential interview with the project researcher.

Company representatives: will complete brief post-event questionnaire and be invited to post-event interview

The investigators will ask about the organisational/employee profile, their perceptions of company provision for health and wellbeing, perceptions towards the usefulness of the implementation toolkit and towards HIV testing in the workplace, method of delivery and their confidence to support employees who disclose a positive test outcome, views about the workplace health check and future implementation intentions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 456
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Nottingham, United Kingdom, NG72HA
    • University of Nottingham

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• employee of a company in construction or related industries
• provides informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• does not speak English

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Health Checks; Workplace health checks - in this intervention employees can select from a range of optional health checks/tests and receive tailored health advice and a health resource pack.	Behavioral: Test@Work; Offer of a general health check including opt-in sexual health consultation and HIV testing, weight/height, Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, mental health screen. Provision of tailored health advice and a resource pack with information and signposting.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Health check uptake	Percentage of employees choosing to take a workplace health check from total employee population across all sites	Rolling intervention delivery and data collection over 15 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
reasons for attending	Qualitative data collected on reasons for opting in to health check	immediately post-event
perceptions of employer's provision for health and wellbeing	Qualitative data collected on perceptions towards employer	immediately post-event
perceptions towards HIV testing in the workplace	Qualitative data collected on employee views towards HIV testing at work	immediately post-event
range of tests undertaken	which of the optional checks/tests were taken by the employee	during the health check, and qualitative data immediately post-event
Employee demographic profile	Age, Gender, country of birth, ethnicity, postcode, sexual orientation, employment status (full-time or part-time, permanent, agency, contract worker)	At recruitment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Nottingham

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Blake H, Somerset S, Evans C. Development and Fidelity Testing of the Test@Work Digital Toolkit for Employers on Workplace Health Checks and Opt-In HIV Testing. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jan 6;17(1):379. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17010379.
• Blake H, Somerset S, Whittingham K, Middleton M, Yildirim M, Evans C. WHIRL Study: Workplace Health Interprofessional Learning in the Construction Industry. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Sep 18;17(18):6815. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186815.
• Middleton M, Somerset S, Evans C, Blake H. Test@Work Texts: Mobile Phone Messaging to Increase Awareness of HIV and HIV Testing in UK Construction Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 26;17(21):7819. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217819.
• Somerset S, Evans C, Blake H. Accessing Voluntary HIV Testing in the Construction Industry: A Qualitative Analysis of Employee Interviews from the Test@Work Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 15;18(8):4184. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084184.
• Jones W, Somerset S, Evans C, Whittingham K, Middleton M, Blake H. Test@work: evaluation of workplace HIV testing for construction workers using the RE-AIM framework. BMC Public Health. 2021 Sep 24;21(1):1737. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11739-z.

Helpful Links

• news item
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Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 17, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 30, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): May 31, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 6, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 28, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): March 2, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 20, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2021
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: health promotion; employees; workplace; health behaviour; health screening
• Other Study ID Numbers: IN-UK-276-5347 HIV DVE

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The investigators are not collecting individual health outcomes as part of this study. The primary aim is to assess uptake and reach of this workplace health checks initiative. Anonymised qualitative data can be available on reasonable request.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No