title: Integrated health programs, health outcomes, and return on investment: measuring workplace health promotion and integrated program effectiveness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore return on investment (ROI) in workplace health promotion studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies with high ROI attribution for workplace health promotion were reanalyzed using standardized measures. Key variables included intervention duration, sector and population size, annualized cost, and health outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ROI was often overestimated. Programs with the highest reported ROI were concentrated in large corporations, where cognitive programs incurred low per person costs. Ten of the 12 studies involved individualized health promotion only, and did not engage work organizational modification or integration with occupational health. Some effective health interventions were discounted because they were not easily monetized.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ROI, an investment metric, amplifies short-term labor-related effects and discounts longer-term chronic disease prevention.
authors.affiliation: From the Ergonomics Technology Center, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Conn. Dr Cherniack is currently receiving a grant (5U19OH008857, Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace) from NIOSH, Total Worker Health Program.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cherniack
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000191:economics*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000191:economics*; D013997:Time Factors