Samenvatting

Abstract Introduction Workplace health promotion (WHP) programs have shown to be effective in the reduction of body weight, increased psychological wellbeing and perceived health of employees. Despite the potential benefits for employees, participation rates of WHP programs are often low (10–64%). Objectives To get more insight into reasons for (non)participation, the objective of this study was to identify the barriers and facilitators for participation in WHP programs from the employee perspective. Methods Peer-to-peer interviewing, a method derived from citizen science, was used to actively involve the target group of employees. In total 14 employees working in the cleaning-, ICT- and facility- sector were trained to conduct interviews themselves with co-workers. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) was used to create an initial codebook, complemented with the constructs ‘interpersonal’ and ‘intrapersonal factors’ from the Social Ecological Model. Data were coded both deductively and inductively, and ranked by two researchers independently. Results In total, 62 peer-to-peer interviews were conducted by the 14 peer-interviewers. Preliminary findings show that main barriers for participation in WHP interventions are a lack of knowledge about the programs and a negative attitude towards WHP (e.g. no belief that their employer can help them with improving their lifestyle). Facilitating factors identified were fit of the WHP activities to the employees’ needs and available (working) time to participate. Conclusion Our findings on the main barriers and facilitators for participation in WHP according to employees may contribute to more successful implementation and higher participation rates in future WHP programs.