How Employers Can Promote Health and Reduce Costs (NAPSA)—Healthy workers can increase productivity and profitability and reduce health care costs for their employers, and employers can affect their workers’ health. More and more employers around the country are trying to test their effect by starting healthy living programs that include nutrition classes, walking clubs and cholesterol monitoring at the worksite. These employers draw on the Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s research arm in the battle against chronic disease. PRCs around the country develop and test interventions to prevent dis- eases, and all settings are fair game—churches, schools, community centers and the workplace. For example, researchers at the University of Washington’s PRC evaluate workplace health promotion programsto find out which practices work best. The scientists tested the American Cancer Society’s Workplace Solutions program to see how successful it would be when put to use by eight large employers. The researchers introduced the intervention and then assessed changes in the employers’ practices in offering health insurance benefits; in having wellness policies, workplace programs and health-promoting communication; and in tracking employee health behaviors to measure progress. Earlier research showed these practices are effective in promoting health and preventing disease. The PRCis also studying how small-scale businesses can help low-wage workers stay healthy. These employees face health concerns they are unable to address because of low income, and some- times employers don’t understand What can employers do? The American Cancer Society’s Workplace Solutions program recommendsbest practices for worksite health promotion. Hereis a sampling: Make healthy foodchoices available and affordable. Offer a workplace physical activity program. Providefull insurance coveragefor tobacco cessation treatments. Post “Use the stairs” remindersignsnear the elevators. Survey employees’ health behaviors to track effectiveness of health promotionefforts. @ how to help or what is needed, said Jeff Harris, M.D., director of the Washington center. Other PRCs are using novel approaches to help workersin different industries. The PRC at the University of South Florida is testing ways to protect the eyes of citrus workers whopick fruit in orange groves. The Harvard Uni- versity PRC, which worksto increase physical activity in Massachusetts schoolchildren, also helps teachers stay active. Workplace health promotion activities can also extend to workers’ families. The University of California at Los Angeles PRC created a program that holds sessions for parents at work during lunchtime to help them educate their teenagers about sexual health. Research on health promotion can help ensure that the limited money a company has to spend on health promotion goes toward strategies thatare really effective. “To create incentive and sustain support, those resources must go to programs known to benefit employees’ health,” Dr. Harris said. For more information about the Prevention Research Centers Program,visit www.cdc.gov/pre.
