Examining Changes in Healthy Days After Health Coaching.

Purpose: To describe changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) related to variation in demographic characteristics, program goals, and program participation, among health coaching program participants.
Design: A retrospective observational study of a health coaching program.
Setting and Participants: A total of 2169 adults enrolled in an individually purchased or employer-sponsored health plan from a large health and well-being company, who participated in a health coaching program between January 2016 and April 2017.
Intervention: The health coaching program used evidence-based behavior change strategies to encourage skill development, self-monitoring, and goal setting/achievement. Health coaching program modalities included online and telephonic coaching sessions.
Measures: Demographic characteristics (gender, age, race, income), goal categories (weight management, fitness, nutrition, stress management, other), program modality (online, telephonic, both), engagement level (low, medium, high), and Healthy Days, a validated HRQOL measure developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Analysis: t Tests, mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results: There were significant ( P < .05) reductions in average total unhealthy days (UHDs) across all goal categories. Mixed ANOVAs identified a significant main effect for time, for all demographic characteristics ( P values < .05), and a significant effect for program modality ( P < .0001), time ( P < .0001), and interaction effects, between program modality and time, on average UHD ( P = .01).
Conclusion: Our findings indicate significant reductions in UHD, following 6 months of health coaching, and support the use of HRQOL measures, which are known to be highly correlated with traditional measures of health, to evaluate health coaching programs.