|
Michael O’Donnell, chairman of Health Promotion Advocates, an advocacy group dedicated to integrating health promotion concepts into health policy, reports that “bills in the Senate and House have significant health promotion sections and many of the ideas emerging from the bills are those that we helped develop.“ He predicts Congress won’t agree on a strategy to fund health care reform in the next few months and will instead push a final vote into 2010. “If this happens, Congress may vote on the separate health promotion provisions as a free-standing bill before the end of this year.” Why is this significant? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 75 percent of the $2.4 trillion the U.S. spends annually on health care is spent on the treatment of chronic diseases. Unhealthy behavior and increased incidence of chronic disease are extremely costly in terms of health care coverage affordability. Since 2000, health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage have increased by 87 percent, according to the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. Businesses struggle daily with the ever-rising cost of health benefits, which go directly to their bottom line. In an effort to stem this tide, employers are increasingly turning to employee health management (EHM). In the new issue brief, “The Business Case for Employee Health Management,” our Chief Medical Officer Jim Reynolds, M.D., cites a Watson Wyatt 2007/2008 productivity study that shows organizations with highly effective health and productivity practices achieve 20 percent more revenue per employee, have a 16.1 percent higher market value and deliver a 57 percent higher shareholder return compared with their less-effective counterparts. The workplace is a natural venue for prevention and health management initiatives. The World Health Organization states that the workplace “has been established as one of the priority settings for health promotion into the 21st century” because it influences “physical, mental, economic and social well-being” and “offers an ideal setting and infrastructure to support the promotion of health of a large audience.” President Obama has outlined his principles for health care reform, each of which are aimed at reducing costs while improving health, but none will do so more effectively than investing in health prevention and management. Building health care reform around better prevention and management of obesity, lack of exercise, tobacco cessation and other behavioral choices could eliminate — not just shift — costs from our health care system. It’s important we show Congress our support of the health promotion provisions in the current legislation. Health Promotion Advocates has developed a Web-based tool for you to easily contact your senators and representatives at no cost. Learn more by clicking on http://www.PassWellnessAct.org To download Dr. Reynold’s new issue brief on employee health management, visit our Website: www.hfit.com/briefs.cfm Yours in good health,
Inside HealthFitness Feel Like a Million (FLAM) is a 12-week Web-based program that encourages participants to increase energy while reducing stress through an entertaining, interactive retro game show theme. “By focusing simple actions in four core areas — fitness, nutrition, balance and purpose — they experience how daily rituals contribute to improved energy, better balance and greater resilience,” said Tanja Madsen, HealthFitness’ director of program development. During the program, participants enter activities and “earn” virtual dollars for completing healthy habits such as exercising, getting adequate sleep, eating nutritious meals and even taking a “time out” to relieve stress while at work. They may also enter “burn” activities that drain energy and take away earned virtual money. And they can choose to participate individually or as part of a Millionaire’s Club (team competition). Either way, the goal is to earn at least one million virtual dollars by the end of the program. “The aim is for participants to earn an average of $12,000 a day, seven days a week for the entire 12 weeks,” stated Madsen. “By logging 30-plus minutes of continuous exercise every day, for example, they can earn $5,000 per day. Or by simply taking a two-minute time-out, they can add $100 more to their daily total.” Participants will have easy access to health tips, resources and articles, and will also receive daily e-mails prompting them to record their daily earnings. “Feel Like a Million is not only fun and rewarding for participants, it’s easy for employers to implement,” Madsen stated. “It’s a unique program that promises to engage employees and encourage their continued participation.” The new online program is made available through HealthFitness’ partnership with Health Enhancement Systems, Inc. For more information on offering Feel Like a Million to your employees, contact your HealthFitness program manager.
New Issue Brief Demonstrates Effective Use of Incentives The brief, “Herbalife: Successfully Driving Employee Engagement with Incentives,” outlines how Herbalife, the global nutrition company, is motivating employees to become active in the company’s Wellness for Life program. With a total possible incentive value of $500 during the first year of implementation, Herbalife’s initiative goes beyond the typical employers, according to a survey of major U.S. employers conducted in 2008. To access the issue brief, visit our Website: www.hfit.com/briefs.cfm.
Best-in-class Practices and Awards Of the company’s 7,400 world-wide employees, nearly half of them work throughout central Florida mining and processing tons of phosphate each year to help sustain the world’s food crops. And of that population, the majority are male, their average years of age are in the upper forties, and they have logged, on average, more than 20 years of service. In 2008, 48.5 percent of these employees (2,169) participated in a Health Risk Assessment which showed the most prevalent health risks among participants to be physical activity (52.2 percent) and obesity (46.5 percent). To address these risks, HealthFitness launched its Biggest Loser initiative through Mosaic’s Lifestyle Management Program (LMP). “The goal of the program was to have 10 percent of the LMP-associated Mosaic employee population physically active,” said Julie Campbell, HealthFitness’ on-site contract manager. “We also wanted to have at least 50 percent of participants physically active three days per week, and we were hoping that at least 50 percent of them would each lose one pound.” After the three-month initiative was completed, the numbers were in. “We exceeded our participation goal with 603 employees participating, and 52 percent of them were physically active at least three days a week,” Campbell stated. “We fell a bit short, however, on reaching our goal of 50 percent losing at least one pound.” But of those who lost weight, Campbell said 25 of them reduced their high risk for obesity.
As further encouragement to manage their weight, employees were invited to participate in HealthFitness’
Maintain Don’t Gain program during the 2008 holiday season. “We had the biggest attendance recorded,” said Campbell. “We had 912 employees participate and of those, 61.2 percent lost weight.” A total of 2,159 pounds were lost and the average weight loss was 5.2 pounds.
Other activities at Mosaic include The Amazing Race and the Mosaic of Wellness health fairs, and on-site screenings for prostate, colon, breast and skin cancer.
In recognition of Mosaic’s employee health management efforts, the American Heart Association awarded the company a Gold Fit-Friendly Award in 2008. The award is presented to companies that offer employees physical activity support, increase healthy eating options at work, promote a wellness culture and implement physical and nutrition activities.
Participation Rates Up at Eastman Chemical Company due to Easy Access, Incentives to Participate and Management Encouragement
Employees at Eastman Chemical Company have taken that advice to heart. Participation at the
Kingsport, Tenn.-based chemicals, fibers and plastics manufacturer’s nine fitness centers jumped 35 percent between 2005 and 2008, and already this year, the number of visits has spiked an additional 25 percent.
Plus, there’s been a huge increase in the number of the eligible population participating in group fitness activities. In 2005, there were 1,692 visits to the group fitness classes. In 2008, there were 17,577 visits representing a 939 percent increase.
“Five years ago we offered maybe 10 group fitness classes a week,” said Brian Baker, HealthFitness’ manager of physical activity at Eastman. “We’re now averaging 59 classes a week, and we’re predicting we’ll reach 25,000 visits by the end of this year.”
Baker said part of the reason for the growth can be attributed to going from one fitness studio to three since 2005, as well as the new studios were strategically located throughout the company’s corporate campus making it easier for more employees to participate.
In addition, he said 14 of Eastman’s divisions have agreed to pay their employees’ fees for participating in a fitness class. “There are now 2,000 employees eligible to participate under the divisional plan,” Baker stated. “The fee is $4 per class, or $30 for a month. If employees participate in at least eight classes this month, their next month’s fees are waived.”
Baker said Eastman’s management commitment to its culture of health is a driving force for the impressive physical activity numbers. “Eastman created a Healthy Dividends Account (HDA) for employees who participate in healthy programs. For example, if an employee goes to 52 fitness classes a year, they ‘earn’ HDA dollars that they can use towards co-pays and other out-of-pocket medical expenses. It really helps keep people motivated to being physically active and healthy.”
And if the participation numbers aren’t impressive enough, the participants’ overall satisfaction rate certainly is: 93 percent say they are either satisfied or very satisfied with the fitness and physical activity programming offered.
*Source: Haskell WL, Lee I-M, Pate RP, Powell KE, Blair SN, Franklin BA, Macera CA, Heath GW, Thompson PD, Bauman, A. Physical activity and public health: updated recommendation for adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Circulation, 2007; 116: 1081-1093.
Total Population Risk Management Focus Delivers Results for Petroleum Company
Oxy introduced the OxyHealth program to its Oil and Gas employees in 1997, in support of the company’s commitment to employee health and well-being. The program’s primary focus was providing employees and their spouses with tools to change high-risk behaviors.
In 2005, Oxy expanded the program to all of its U.S.-based companies and widened the scope to address everyone’s health risks, not just those with high risk. The California-based company then launched OxyWellness, a comprehensive health management program designed to engage all eligible Oxy employees and their spouses in healthy lifestyle choices. With the launch of OxyWellness, the eligible employee population grew from 1,970 to more than 6,800.
Health risk assessment (HRA) data for 2006 to 2007 demonstrated improvements related to high-fat diet, blood pressure, inactivity and smoking. During the same period, participants in HealthFitness’ targeted behavior modification (TBM) programs specific to weight management, physical activity, tobacco cessation, cardiac wellness and stress management reduced their number of health risks. Those not enrolled in these programs increased their average number of health risks.
In 2008, HRA data indicated that OxyWellness again contributed to statistically significant improvements in physical inactivity, nutrition, blood pressure, tobacco and depression. The average number of high risks was reduced from 2.33 to 2.16, and the prevalence of five or more high health risks decreased from 9.2 percent to 7.4 percent.
OxyWellness program components include an interactive eHealth platform, targeted incentives, health risk assessments, health improvement programs, site- and remotely based biometric screenings, health advising and EMPOWERED™ Health Coaching. The key features of the program are site-based programming, grassroots efforts and incentives to promote a culture of health.
In the past few years, Oxy work sites adopted a team approach to increase their participation in HRAs, health screenings and health coaching. They were given the option to use different degrees of site-based grassroots efforts as wild cards to achieve an award. Each site was eligible to win prizes for meeting specific percentage levels based on the total eligibility of the site. The higher the level of participation, the higher the award levels.
This year, Oxy launched an online incentive rewards program designed to sustain participation in healthy activities year-round. With the current incentive program, employees receive tokens when they complete the HRA and screening and enroll in and achieve their goals with health coaching. Employees can then use these tokens to spin a wheel (much like “Wheel of Fortune”) via the e-platform site, where they can earn points to purchase merchandise, such as DVD players, exercise equipment and toys.
Also contributing to reduced health risks among Oxy’s total population are two dedicated HealthFitness program managers, “wellness champions” at each site and senior-team support.
Oxy continues to look to the future for new and innovative ways to improve the health and well-being of its employees.
Industry Insights
To study the effects of stress on weight, researchers analyzed a nationally representative group of 1,355 American men and women ages 25 to 74. Participants were followed from 1995 to 2004. During the study period, a change in BMI was assessed along with psychosocial stress, specifically stress related to work, personal relationships, life constraints and finances.
Researchers found that over a period of nine years, psychosocial stress was associated with greater weight gain among both men and women with higher baseline BMIs. For women, BMI was affected by job-related demands, perceived constraints in life and strain in family relationships. For men, BMI was most affected by stress in the workplace, including less skill discretion, less decision authority and higher job-related demands. Financial strain (difficulty paying bills) affected both men and women. Researchers also noted that participants with a higher BMI at baseline who reported more stress also gained more weight. This was not the case for those with lower baseline BMIs.
Exactly how stress is related to weight gain is not fully understood. Some researchers have attributed it to changes in hormones associated with abdominal obesity or an increased appetite. Regardless, stress reduction is something to consider as a component of weight-loss interventions in worksites and in clinical and public health programs.
Source: Block JP, et. al. Psychosocial stress and change in weight among US adults, American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009;DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwp104.
Trends in Healthy Lifestyle Habits in U.S. Adults
This study compared the rates of adherence to healthy lifestyle habits by using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the years 1988 to 1994 and 2001 to 2006. The study focused on adults between the ages 40 to 74 years because this is the age span when initial diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and risk factors are common. The five healthy lifestyle behaviors are defined as: Physical activity greater than 12 times per month Maintaining a healthy weight (defined in the study as a body mass index of 18.5 to 29.9) Not smoking Moderate alcohol use (defined as no more than one drink/day for women and two drinks/day for men) Eating at least five fruits and vegetables a day Researchers found that adherence to all five healthy habits as a group has dropped from 15 percent to 8 percent during the past 18 years. Obesity has increased from 28 percent to 36 percent; regular physical activity has decreased from 53 percent to 43 percent; and eating five or more fruits and vegetables a day has decreased from 42 percent to 26 percent among adults between ages 40 to 74 years. Smoking remained relatively unchanged (26.9 percent to 26.1 percent) and moderate alcohol use has increased from 40 percent to 51 percent. Furthermore, individuals with a history of hypertension, diabetes or cardiovascular disease were no more likely to have healthy habits than people without these conditions. Source: King, D., et. al. Adherence to Healthy Lifestyle Habits in US Adults, 1988-2006. The American Journal of Medicine. 2009; 122, 528-534.
Upcoming Events The Forum SIIA 29th Annual National Conference 2009 HERO Forum for Employee Health
Management 2009 National Conference on Health, Productivity and Human Capital |
