UNIVERSITY ADVOCATES WELLNESS FOR ITS EMPLOYEES; MORE THAN 300 ARE PARTICIPATING IN HEALTH SCREENING

Almost 300 Southeast Missouri State University employees and spouses are voluntarily participating in a health screening this week as part of the university's Wellness Advantage program.

"We are actually overbooked," said Jacque Hooper, a member of the health management faculty at Southeast and the university's wellness coordinator. "We now have people on the waiting list."

Hooper said 295 people are scheduled to go through the health screening. The screening began Monday at 7:30 a.m. and will continue during the morning hours daily through Friday at the University Center.

This is the second health screening at Southeast; the first one last spring screened 242 people.

Southeast has 970 regular employees. "We eventually want to screen every employee on campus," said Hooper.

"The mission of our program is to improve the quality of life of our employees," she said. Healthier employees will help reduce the university's health care costs, explained Hooper.

Kala Stroup, Southeast's president, is a supporter of the wellness program. She and her husband, Joe, went through the screening Monday morning.

"We've got such good people who are really interested in it," Stroup said of the wellness program.

While the university's program is voluntary, Stroup said she believes in the future major companies and institutions will have to require health screenings for employees in order to get health insurance coverage.

Participants in the screening go through several "health stations." Health management-health promotion students are manning the health stations. One station is manned by food-and-nutrition students from the human environmental studies department.

In all, 40 people will handle screening activities on rotating shifts during the week, with about 12 people handling the duties at any one time.

"It's really quite a task," said Hooper. "The scheduling is almost as tough as having the employees come here."

Hooper said the screening includes everything from blood pressure to a muscle flexibility test.

"We're looking at blood pressures, and doing a full blood analysis, and that includes blood cholesterol," said Hooper. There also will be a glucose test.

Participants are also checked as to their percentage of body fat. "We tell them how much fat is on the body and give them an ideal body weight," said Hooper. The screening involves a waist-hip ratio that reflects where the fat is deposited, she explained.

"The people who have a high proportion of abdominal fat are at greater risk of coronary heart disease, hypertension and diabetes," she said.

"We will also be doing a computerized food analysis. They have been given forms to fill out what they have eaten in a typical day," said Hooper. "We put it in a computer to see if it is heart healthy."

The screening also includes a low-back analysis. "We are basically trying to prevent low-back pain and injury. Eighty percent of all low-back pain and injury has been attributed to inflexible hamstring muscles," she said.

Also, weak abdominal muscles can lead to back pain, she pointed out.

After going through the screening stations, participants are treated to fat-free pastries, fruit, juice and cider.

"Because it is Halloween (week), we are giving them low-fat Halloween candy," she said. All participants also receive T-shirts.

Results of the health screening will be distributed in November at a series of health seminars called the WellSaid Seminar Series.

The previous screening found 64.9 percent of the male and 38.4 percent of the female participants had elevated cholesterol levels, said Hooper.

In addition, 45 percent of the men and 21.6 percent of the women had elevated blood-pressure levels. Hooper said 35.5 percent of participants did not engage in routine physical exercise and 80 percent of participants had excess body fat.

Hooper said the university hopes its wellness program will be copied by area businesses. "We hope to set an example for the community," she said.