The Effect of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion on Workplace Productivity: A Literature Review

Abstract

This report was prepared by the Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the Institute for Health and Productivity Management as part of an effort to improve understanding of the connection between employee health and performance and to begin to identify new strategies through which treating health as an investment in human capital can lead to greater business success. Computer database searches of peer-reviewed literature published between 1993 and 1998 and manual reviews of 20 journals were used to identify research on the link between employee health and performance. Data was extracted to summarize the overall findings on the magnitude of health problems addressed by health promotion and disease prevention programs, and the impact of interventions on improving health risk, reducing medical care cost, and improving worker performance. From this summary, major conclusions on early detection of disease, the impact of behavior change programs, and appropriate care-seeking were drawn. This systematic review is supplemented with summaries of 15 seminal articles and descriptions of five leading-practices programs. The influence of developments in work/family issues, complementary and alternative medicine, and quality of care and health outcomes research are briefly discussed. Finally, a conceptual framework for studying the impact of health and productivity is described.

Health as a Complete State: The Added Value in Work Performance and Healthcare Costs

“…8 -10 It appears clear that health-promotion programs that identify levels of risk among individuals and that implement interventions to reduce health risks in worker populations provide mean-ingful returns on investment. 8,[11][12][13][14][15][16] Thus far, the mission of public health activity, including occupational health, consists of actions to reduce pathogenic conditions and behaviors that protect against death and disease. With this approach, healthimprovement programs can only achieve a partial version of health as the relative absence of disease and illness.…”

A Predictive Model of Occupational and Lifestyle Risk Factors and Pain Management Strategies for Participants in a Wellness Program Diagnosed with Chronic Low Back Pain

“…Potential benefits of pain management programs focusing on CLBP may include reduction in future workers' compensation cost [55], improvement of employees' productivity [56], reduction the medical costs, and reduction absenteeism and turnover [57]. This research may also provide a better insight for health and safety professionals to estimate the net costs of managing CLBP in the workplace from an economic aspect.…”

Screening for Hazardous Drinking in Migrant Workers in Southeastern Spain

“…There seems to be a multifactorial relation in which biological, psychological, cultural and social factors intervene. Occupational health services (OHS) are one of the pillars for conducting early interventions, since the actively working population spends many hours in the workplace 8,9) . Work is the ideal place for selective prevention (strategies that target subgroups of the general population that are determined to be at risk for substance abuse) for several reasons-the homogeneity of the population concerned, the free access to all employees and the possibility of followup activity.…”