Do Clients Read Health Promotion Posters in an Occupational Health Waiting Area?

Introduction: Preventing workplace illness through occupational health promotion is central to organisational strategy, yet traditional waiting area notice boards lack robust evidence regarding their efficacy and resource investment. This project evaluated whether clients find a low back pain health promotion poster genuinely helpful, or if the poster simply blends into the background.

Methods: This project was conducted at a National Health Service (NHS) occupational health department in North London, and targeted clients attending face-to-face initial physiotherapy consultations. A health promotion poster focusing on low back pain (LBP) was displayed in the waiting area. Upon completing their consultation, 48 participants completed a brief questionnaire capturing length of wait, poster readership, and perceived usefulness. Data were analysed using Fisher’s Exact Test.

Results: Descriptive trends showed that poster readership and usefulness nearly tripled as the length of wait times increased. Readership rose from 20% (<5 minutes) to 46.2% (5–15 minutes) and 63.3% (>15 minutes). Similarly, perceived usefulness increased from 20% to 38.5% and 56.7%, respectively. However, Fisher’s exact test revealed no statistically significant association between length of wait time and readership (p=0.188) or usefulness (p=0.238), likely due to the small sample size.

Conclusion: Longer wait times show a strong trend toward increased poster engagement and perceived usefulness. When operational wait times are unavoidable, using targeted notice boards offers a low-cost educational opportunity to optimise client downtime.