title: Measuring the effect of workplace health promotion interventions on "presenteeism": a potential role for biomarkers.
abstract: Health promotion activities to improve employee health to reduce health care costs and increase productivity are of particular importance for organizations and society. The evaluation of employee health and health promotion programs has typically focused on absenteeism, disability and increasingly, "presenteeism", which refers to an employee's presence at work with reduced performance due to illness. Existing psychometric measures of presenteeism may be subject to the effects of recall bias as they typically rely on questionnaires. Biomarkers such as heart rate variability and salivary cortisol can provide additional objective measures of illness and stress. Combining such physiologic measures of stress with assessments of presenteeism may offer a more comprehensive way to assess workplace productivity when developing health promotion programs.
authors.affiliation: Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, University Medicine Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Ludolf-Krehl-Strasse 7-11, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Shelby
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loerbroks
authors.forename: Darcey D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Terris
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D015415:Biomarkers; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000592:standards*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D016272:Occupational Health; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D027544:Salvia; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017132:Workplace
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006854:Hydrocortisone