Objectives Like the concept of work ability in occupational health, gait speed is a measure of general fitness and can predict functional decline and morbidity. This is especially important when our care‐takers, i.e. nurses, show decline in fitness and become care‐receivers. The study aims to describe the demographics of hospital nurses in the context of gait speed and work ability as well as to determine the association between them. Methods Three‐hundred and twelve inpatient nurses and nursing assistants were sampled from a level 1 trauma and teaching hospital from several service lines and acuity levels. Spearman correlation tests were utilized to determine the relationship of gait speed and ratings of item 1 on the Work Ability Index (WAI) as well as Cochran‐Armitage test for linear trend of gait speed. Results Maximum gait speed has a significant positive association with work ability with a Rho coefficient of 0.217 ( P < .0001). Additionally, the linear trend test of gait speed tertiles was significant ( P < .001) for work ability categories of Moderate to Poor (0‐7) and Good to Excellent (8‐10). Conclusions Gait speed is correlated with the item 1 self‐rating of the WAI in hospital nursing staff. The 10‐m walk test is a practical and easy measure that can be utilized in occupational health. More research is required to validate gait speed in other occupational health populations and investigate gait speed changes and its interaction with the work environment longitudinally.

Regular participation in physical activity, either recreational, or planned, structured, and repetitive is capable of yielding a multitude of health-improving benefits. Traditionally, physical activity has been recognized for its robust modulatory effects on cardiometabolic, neuromusculoskeletal, and immunological health and function. However, a sufficient quantity of emerging studies lends credence to its inclusion to improving mental health, warranting consideration as an adjuvant modality in treating mental illnesses and emotional and behavioral disorders. A series of studies evaluating the impact of physical activity on mental health revealed that achieving physical activity guidelines jointly set forth by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can reduce onset, incidence, and severity of depression as well as mitigating stress and anxiety. The findings of our review lend further support for physical activity as a means to bolster mental health and serve as a powerful resource for working populations.

Objective: Physical activity and work ability are increasingly important topics due to aging of the modern workforce. Workplace physical activity programs can help attenuate the decline in physical resources that typically transpires with age yet, older employees are less likely to participate. The study's primary aim was to understand how perceived benefits and barriers and physical activity climate are related to older employees' participation in workplace physical activity programs. Methods: The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing an 18-item survey. Respondents consisted of 862 older employees (>55 years) of a public university in the southeastern United States. Differences in total subscale scores between sexes, program participation status, occupational category and physical activity were compared and contrasted. Results: Differences in perceived benefit and barrier scores between workplace physical activity program participants (N = 474) and non-participants (N = 388) were significant with a p-value 0.001. Physical activity climate scores were significantly different as well with a p-value of 0.003. All three subscale scores (benefits, barriers, climate) were also significantly different between physically active and inactive employees with a p value 0.001. Conclusions: The findings from this investigation suggest that employees' participation in workplace physical activity programs is influenced by their individual beliefs and perceptions of social and organizational norms. Physical activity climate should be a primary consideration to promote workplace physical activity program participation among older employees. Additional recommendations to improve participation among older employees are discussed.

Employee wellness programs provide numerous benefits for employers and employees, however, achieving high participation is critical to their success. Workplace health climate, a measure of perceptions of support and environmental conditions, has been shown to influence participation in wellness programs. Thus, our study's primary aim was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between workplace health climate and participation in an employee wellness program. The inquiry design was a needs assessment utilizing a 16-item survey. Respondents consisted of 1618 employees of a public university. Differences in workplace health climate scores based on wellness program participation, sex, and university company were compared and contrasted. There was a significant difference in total scores between wellness program participants 3.85 and non-participants 3.74, p-value 0.007. There were also significant differences in total scores among the three primary companies. The Academic Division had a mean total score of 3.90, the Physicians Group had a score of 3.81, and the Medical Center had a score of 3.70, p-value<0.001. There were no significant differences in total scores between sexes, p-value 0.153. The findings from our investigation support earlier research and suggest a favorable workplace health climate is associated with employees' participation in wellness programs. Additionally, workplace health climate can vary among business units and suggest a more favorable health climate might be attained by addressing employees' perceptions of organizational support. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the constituent elements of workplace health climate, and their association with participation in wellness programs.

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