Workplace Programs, Policies, And Environmental Supports To Prevent Cardiovascular Disease.
Using a novel approach, we provide a preliminary "snapshot" of how the comprehensiveness of workplace cardiovascular health initiatives is related to measures of employees' health risks, disease prevalence, and medical expenditures. We linked scores for the twenty large organizations that voluntarily completed the American Heart Association's newly launched Worksite Health Achievement Index (WHAI) for 2015 to individual-level MarketScan® data for 373,478 of their workers with employer benefits that year. Higher aggregate WHAI scores were associated with lower values for four of seven modifiable indicators of cardiovascular risk and a higher value for one. Although also associated with lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease, higher aggregate scores were associated with higher spending on the condition. These and other findings provide useful benchmarks and norms for employer practices related to cardiovascular disease prevention. As employers continue to complete the annual WHAI, we expect to gain further insights into the policies, programs, and environmental supports employers can implement to positively influence cardiovascular health and related spending.
Ron Z. Goetzel (rgoetzel@us.ibm.com) is vice president of health and productivity research at Truven Health Analytics, an IBM company, in Bethesda, Maryland, and senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Rachel Mosher Henke is director of research at Truven Health Analytics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Michael A. Head is a senior research analyst at Truven Health Analytics in Cambridge.
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Richele Benevent is a programmer and senior analyst at Truven Health Analytics in Santa Barbara, California.
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Chris Calitz is director of the Center for Workplace Health Research and Evaluation at the American Heart Association, in Dallas, Texas.
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D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D017132:Workplace / Q000458:organization & administration
Employer-Based System < Insurance; Health Promotion/Disease Prevention; Heart Health; Workforce Issues; Workplace Health Promotion