A Multi-Year Wellness Survey of University Employees Surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Multi-Year Wellness Survey of University Employees Surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic University employees face numerous workplace stressors that make adherence challenging to healthy lifestyle behaviors, including adequate nutrition, physical activity, and sleep. The COVID-19 pandemic has added further complexities, interrupting habitual routines through remote working, closure of fitness centers, and increased stress levels. This project examines trends in university employees' wellness outcomes over three surveys, distributed in 2019 (n=614, female=466/male=148, faculty=291/staff=323, age 46.2±11.8 years, BMI 27.8±6.2 kg/m2), 2021(n=375,female=283/male=92, faculty=178/staff=197, age 47.6±12.5 years, BMI 27.9±6.7 kg/m2), and 2022(n=419, female=302/male=117, faculty=183/staff=236, age 45.6± 12.5 years, BMI 27.5±6.7 kg/m2), to understand how the time frame surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted body weight, various health conditions/states, daily sitting time, sleep habits, and stages of change for various health behaviors. Surveys were distributed via university email to all full-time and part-time employees. Descriptive statistics are presented as means±SD and frequencies, one-way ANOVAs were used for comparisons across the survey years, and bivariate correlations examined relationships among outcomes. Participants' average BMI remained relatively consistent (~27.5–27.9 kg/m2); however, there was a modest but significant weight gain in 2022 compared to the prior survey years (p