title: Implementing workplace health promotion initiatives: who should we target?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With recent increase in focus on population-based interventions in workplaces, targeting lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease, there is a need to ensure that interventions maximise total reach while still reaching more disadvantaged groups within the workforce. This requires assembling information on NSW workforce and health risks data in a way that is useful to guide planning in health promotion. This paper aims to describe the NSW workforce by employer size, industry divisions, occupation classification, geographic location and risk factor prevalence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from a unique combination of public and non-publicly available data sets was used to describe the NSW workforce by demographic, setting-specific variables and risk factor prevalence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NSW represents 31% of Australia's workforce. Large employers represent 1% of businesses but employ 33% of the NSW workforce. Reaching large numbers of NSW workers can be achieved by targeting large employers in metropolitan regions; however, a high proportion of workers with multiple health risks are located in non-metropolitan areas and industries that have a high proportion of small employers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The workplace as a setting for population based health promotion interventions provides a number of challenges due to the fragmented nature and dispersed distribution of the workforce.
authors.affiliation: Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity Research Group (PANORG), School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050. alexis.stgeorge@sydney.edu.au
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: St George
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Newson
authors.forename: Venessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009790:Occupations; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult