Objective: To determine the accuracy of self-reported health care utilizatio and absence reported on health risk assessments against administrative claims and human resource records. Methods: ...Self-reported values of heal care utilization and absenteeism were analyzed for concordance to administrative claims values. Percent agreement, Pearson's correlations, and multivariate logistic regression models examined the level of agreement and characteristic participants with concordance. Results: Self-report and administrative data showed greater concordance for monthly compared mth yearly health care utilization metrics. Percent agreement ranged from 30% to 99% with annua doctor visits having the lowest percent agreement. Younger people, males, tho with higher education, and healthier individuals more accurately reported the health care utilization and absenteeism. Conclusions: Self reported health ca utilization and absenteeism may be used as a proxy when medical claims and administrative data are unavailable, particularly for shorter recall periods.
This study aimed to identify stressors faced by essential workers amid the coronavirus disease pandemic and effective interventions mitigating these stressors.
We reviewed literature on psychosocial, ...organizational, and environmental stressors faced by essential workers during the pandemic, the consequences of those stressors, and interventions to improve worker health and well-being.
Stressors included elevated risk of coronavirus disease 2019 exposure, fear of spreading the virus, lack of social and organizational supports, and financial insecurity. Negative outcomes included burnout, depression, and high turnover. Promising interventions included robust safety protocols, increased wages, childcare benefits, enhanced access to mental health services, and frequent leadership communications.
Stress has taken a heavy toll on essential workers' physical and emotional health, productivity, and job satisfaction. To effectively protect Total Worker Health, employers should adopt evidence-based interventions promoting psychosocial, organizational, and environmental health and safety.
Purpose:
We investigated the relationship between companies’ efforts to build internal (COH-INT) and external cultures of health (COH-EXT) and their stock performance.
Design:
We administered 2 ...surveys, which measure companies’ programs, policies, and supports for improving the health of their employees and communities. We then compared the companies’ stock performance to the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index from January 2013 through August 2017.
Setting:
United States.
Participants:
Representatives from 17 publicly traded companies who completed the COH-INT survey, of whom 14 also completed the COH-EXT.
Measures:
Culture of health scores were dichotomized into high versus low for both surveys. Stock price data for all companies were gathered from public sources.
Analysis:
We constructed 5 stock portfolios: all 17 companies, high COH-INT, low COH-INT, high COH-EXT, and low COH-EXT companies. We examined total returns for each portfolio compared to the S&P 500.
Results:
High COH-INT companies’ stock price appreciated by 115% compared to the S&P benchmark (+69%), while low COH-INT companies appreciated only 43%. In contrast, high COH-EXT companies underperformed (+44%) when compared to the S&P 500 (+69%) and low COH-EXT companies (+89%).
Conclusion:
This study supports the view that employers’ efforts to build an internal culture of health is a sound business strategy. More research is needed, however, to establish whether a link exists between supporting healthy community initiatives and company stock performance.
OBJECTIVE:The aim of the study was to declare a call to action to improve mental health in the workplace.
METHODS:We convened a public health summit and assembled an Advisory Council consisting of ...experts in the field of occupational health and safety, workplace wellness, and public policy to offer recommendations for action steps to improve health and well-being of workers.
RESULTS:The Advisory Council narrowed the list of ideas to four priority projects.
CONCLUSIONS:The recommendations for action include developing a mental health in the workplace (1) “how to” guide, (2) scorecard, (3) recognition program, and (4) executive training.
Cardiovascular disease in the U.S. accounted for healthcare cost and productivity losses of $330 billion in 2013–2014 and diabetes accounted for $327 billion in 2017. The impact is disproportionate ...on minority and low-SES populations. This paper examines the available evidence on cost, economic benefit, and cost effectiveness of interventions that engage community health workers to prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent type 2 diabetes, and manage type 2 diabetes.
Literature from the inception of databases through July 2016 was searched for studies with economic information, yielding nine studies in cardiovascular disease prevention, seven studies in type 2 diabetes prevention, and 13 studies in type 2 diabetes management. Analyses were done in 2017. Monetary values are reported in 2016 U.S. dollars.
The median intervention cost per patient per year was $329 for cardiovascular disease prevention, $600 for type 2 diabetes prevention, and $571 for type 2 diabetes management. The median change in healthcare cost per patient per year was –$82 for cardiovascular disease prevention and –$72 for type 2 diabetes management. For type 2 diabetes prevention, one study saw no change and another reported –$1,242 for healthcare cost. One study reported a favorable 1.8 return on investment from engaging community health workers for cardiovascular disease prevention. Median cost per quality-adjusted life year gained was $17,670 for cardiovascular disease prevention, $17,138 (mean) for type 2 diabetes prevention, and $35,837 for type 2 diabetes management.
Interventions engaging community health workers are cost effective for cardiovascular disease prevention and type 2 diabetes management, based on a conservative $50,000 benchmark for cost per quality-adjusted life year gained. Two cost per quality-adjusted life year estimates for type 2 diabetes prevention were far below the $50,000 benchmark.
OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to provide a current picture of the state of workplace health promotion (wellness) programs in the U.S. from both employer and employee perspectives.
METHODS:We ...analyzed data from two independent surveys of employers (N = 1500) and the general population (N = 4611).
RESULTS:Employers reported offering wellness programs at almost twice the rate of employees who reported having these programs available to them. Most (59.4%) employees felt employers should play a role in improving worker health and nearly three-fourths (72.1%) thought that lower insurance premiums should be offered for participation in wellness programs. However, fewer than half felt that their work environment allows them to maintain good health.
CONCLUSION:Although wellness programs are offered at the majority of workplaces in the U.S., employees are unlikely to be aware of these efforts and would like employers to be forthcoming in providing programs promoting good health.
Using a novel approach, we provide a preliminary "snapshot" of how the comprehensiveness of workplace cardiovascular health initiatives is related to measures of employees' health risks, disease ...prevalence, and medical expenditures. We linked scores for the twenty large organizations that voluntarily completed the American Heart Association's newly launched Worksite Health Achievement Index (WHAI) for 2015 to individual-level MarketScan® data for 373,478 of their workers with employer benefits that year. Higher aggregate WHAI scores were associated with lower values for four of seven modifiable indicators of cardiovascular risk and a higher value for one. Although also associated with lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease, higher aggregate scores were associated with higher spending on the condition. These and other findings provide useful benchmarks and norms for employer practices related to cardiovascular disease prevention. As employers continue to complete the annual WHAI, we expect to gain further insights into the policies, programs, and environmental supports employers can implement to positively influence cardiovascular health and related spending.
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