Workers’ healthcare assistance model (WHAM): Development, validation, and assessment of sustainable return on investment (S-ROI)

Abstract

The present study aimed to present and validate the Worker´s Healthcare Assistance Model (WHAM), which includes an interdisciplinary approach to health risk management in search of integral and integrated health, considering economic sustainability. Through the integration of distinct methodological strategies, WHAM was developed in the period from 2011 to 2018, in a workers’ occupational health centre in the oil industry in Bahia, Brazil. The study included a sample of 965 workers, 91.7% of which were men, with a mean age of 44.9 years (age ranged from 23 to 73 years). The Kendall rank correlation coefficient and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used for the validation of WHAM. The assessment of sustainable return on investment (S-ROI) was made using the WELLCAST ROI™ decision support tool, covering workers with heart disease and diabetes. WHAM can be considered an innovative healthcare model, as there is no available comparative model. WHAM is considered robust, with 86% health risk explanatory capacity and with an 85.5% S-ROI. It can be concluded that WHAM is a model capable of enhancing the level of workers’ health in companies, reducing costs for employers and improving the quality of life within the organization.