Health and wellness promotion in the workplace

Abstract

Worksite wellness is a relative newcomer to the professional field of occupational health, and there is tremendous variability in employer programs and initiatives intended to support employee health and wellness across occupational settings and around the world. Many questions remain about the health benefits and cost effectiveness of these formal and informal strategies to improve employee health, but most of the research evidence so far has supported their effectiveness provided the programs are sufficiently comprehensive, far-reaching, and targeted to the specific needs of individual workers and occupational settings (Carnethon et al., 2009; Pelletier, 2011; Soler et al., 2010). Today, the concept of worksite wellness includes attention to both the physical and psychosocial well-being of workers (Levy, Wegman, Baron, & Sokas, 2011), and health promotion efforts fall within primary, secondary, and tertiary aspects of disease and disability prevention (Harris, Lichiello, & Hannon, 2009). With an aging workforce and proliferation of chronic health conditions among workers in the US and elsewhere (Caban-Martinez et al., 2011; Szinovacz, 2011), employers are likely to dedicate more attention and resources to preventing and dealing with serious health problems in the workplace of the future. While disability benefits and other health insurance programs are in place in most industrialized nations as a safety net for ill workers, health promotion and early intervention programs may become more commonplace as an employer-supported or workplace-centered effort.