Health Promotion Site Selection Blues: Barriers to Participation and Implementation

Abstract

A highly structured process for determining corporate readiness for participatory health promotion produced contradictory results.

Healthy Workplaces? A Survey of Massachusetts Employers

“…A related question is under what circumstances an employer is motivated to introduce new programming; the answer may differ quite a bit for activities in a legally mandated area (OHS) than for WHP, where financial incentives play a primary role. 20,21 If an employer's WHP efforts primarily emphasize individual behavior change, that paradigm might not support OHS protections. In this survey, workplaces reporting lower OHS/WHP coordination tended to be those with less OHS activity and especially less WHP.…”

“…However, there seems to be little overlap in practice because of differences in health targets, legal mandates, financial incentives, and training of the professionals involved. 8,[19][20][21][22][23] The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) provides assistance to employers interested in developing comprehensive worksite health improvement initiatives. As part of this effort, MDPH surveyed a representative sample of Massachusetts em-ployers in 2008 regarding their WHP programs and practices; some questions about OH programs were also included.…”

The process evaluation of two alternative participatory ergonomics intervention strategies for construction companies

“…However, the low reach also indicates that more effort should be done to get companies involved in studies to increase use of ergonomics tools or equipment. Other studies (Cherniack et al 2010;Johnson et al 2008;Kidd et al 2004) have shown that there are many reasons for non-participation. Due to the different recruitment strategies, asking for reasons for non-participation was not feasible for all non-participating companies; when assessed, one of the main arguments was that companies had 'no urgency to implement ergonomics tools' .…”

‘Relieved Working’ study: systematic development and design of an intervention to decrease occupational quartz exposure at construction worksites

“…Managers are also invited for a session with all participating companies to share ideas and learn about new innovations of technical control measures. Secondly, as time, place and costs are important factors to successfully adopt and implement the program [ 32 , 33 ], the three sessions are organized within the existing so-called “Toolbox Education system” in the Dutch construction industry. The toolbox education system consists of at least 10 obligatory health and safety training sessions for workers, which have to be organized by managers in the construction industry each year in order to obtain an official health and safety certificate.…”