title: The relationship between wellness participation and health care benefit utilization.
abstract: To examine the relationship between participation in a wellness program and the amount of absenteeism and medical claims, seven years of retrospective absenteeism and medical claims records were collected for 207 employees (pre- and postwellness intervention) and entered into a database. A proportional stratified random sample of workers by wellness participation was selected. While there was no significant change in the amount of sick leave taken over time, a log transformation revealed a significant increase in the dollar amount of medical claims over time, particularly for the middle-aged group of employees. This confirms that wellness intervention slowed the rate of increasing claims among middle-aged participants after just three years of wellness intervention.
authors: S J
authors: SJ
authors: Astrup
authors: P M
authors: PM
authors: McGovern
authors: L K
authors: LK
authors: Kochevar
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017046:Cost Savings / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires