The magnitude of the change in mean scores on the
Laboratory Assessment Checklist in the intervention group
compared with the other groups was substantial. Note, however,
that the education-only group also experienced a large
change in effect size from pretest to posttest. In addition, the
ANCOVA revealed that this group differed significantly
from the control participants—an unexpected result.
Researchers hypothesized that no difference would be seen
between these groups given that the education-only participants
received only limited information, from the cognitive
domain only, and no feedback, practice, or participatory
training. Although they did not improve to the degree the
intervention group did, this finding still lends some support
to providing written information to employees as a way to
encourage behavior change. We should be cautious, how-ever, because our findings may not represent true behavioral
responses to written information because the participants
knew that they were going to be assessed and may have made
an extra effort to improve their workstation and positioning.
Some misclassification also may have occurred if, in fact,
members of the education-only cell sought assistance from
coworkers from the education–training cell regarding the
intervention. In addition, it is not known for how long these
behaviors continued after this study.