Economic impact of the BP DownShift Program on blood pressure control among commercial driver license employees.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the economic impact of a hypertension educational and awareness program ("BP Downshift") on improvement in blood pressure among commercial driver license (CDL) employees in a large southeastern U.S. electric utility company.


METHODS
An economic simulation model was developed to evaluate the costs/cost savings the company realized from implementation of the BP DownShift Program in terms of changes in work productivity, CDL certification status, hypertension treatment, cardiovascular disease events, and diabetes care.


RESULTS
Model results showed a 16.3% (more than $540,000) reduction in costs for a sample of 499 CDL employees over 2 years. On a per-employee basis, 2-year cost savings were estimated to be $1084, or $542 annually.


CONCLUSIONS
Study results will interest employers who are considering using disease management and health promotion programs to control costs of hypertension and other chronic illnesses.
Greene
Beth L
BL
Abt Bio Pharma Solutions, Inc., Lexington, Mass 02421, USA.
Miller
Jeffrey D
JD
Brown
T Michelle
TM
Harshman
Robert S
RS
Richerson
Gerald T
GT
Doyle
Joseph J
JJ
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004526:Efficiency; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D016272:Occupational Health; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000191:economics; D015144:Southeastern United States; D014186:Transportation; D055815:Young Adult