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Chapel Hill, NC – Nearly half of US employers offer workplace health promotion programs, which are becoming more prevalent, according to a recent study from the University of North Carolina.
Researchers sampled more than 2,800 employers with at least 10 workers as part of the 2017 Workplace Health Survey – the most recent national survey of health promotion programs in the workplace. work dating back 13 years. They evaluated the health promotion programs offered by employers – focused on nutrition, stress, physical activity, alcohol and drug abuse, sleep and various other health-related topics – as well as medical screenings, disease management and the use of incentives to encourage participation and health. changes, work-life policies, barriers to implementation, and workplace safety and health.
The results showed that 46.1% of employers had implemented a workplace health promotion program, up 44.7% in 2004. In addition, employers with a comprehensive program – including a supportive social and physical environment, links to related programs, health education, screenings with appropriate follow-up and training, and integration of programs into the structure of an organization – have gone from 6.9% to 17.1% among organizations with 50 or more employees.
Employers most likely to have a full program had at least one person in charge of the program (72.2%), a budget (64.4%) and several years of experience in a program to promote health (89.9% had a program of at least one year). ).
Other findings:
- The percentage of workplaces with a health promotion program increased with the size of the employer, ranging from 39% of workplaces from 10 to 24 employees to 60% of workplaces from 50 to 99 employees at 92% of workplaces with 500 or more employees. .
- Nearly 30% of employers have proposed any program that focuses on physical activity, physical fitness or physical inactivity.
- About 17% offered a program dealing with obesity or weight management.
"Most American adults work and many spend at least half of their waking hours at work," Laura Linnan, lead author of the study, professor at the UNC's Department of Health Behaviors. and founding director of the Carolina Collaborative for Work and Health Research, said in a press release on April 22. "Where we work, how long did we work, the working conditions we work with – all of these factors impact our health. Employers have the opportunity to shape their work environment and conditions in ways that promote the health of their employees. "
The study was published online April 22 in the newspaper American Journal of Health Promotion.
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