healthy workplaces Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/healthy-workplaces/ Your hub for fresh-picked health and wellness info Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:06:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AHA_Gradient_Bowl-150x150.jpg healthy workplaces Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/healthy-workplaces/ 32 32 Work-Related Stress Linked to Increased Risk of Future Sick Leave in Middle-Aged Women https://amazinghealthadvances.net/work-stress-linked-risk-of-future-sick-leave-in-middle-aged-women-8273/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=work-stress-linked-risk-of-future-sick-leave-in-middle-aged-women-8273 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/work-stress-linked-risk-of-future-sick-leave-in-middle-aged-women-8273/#respond Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:08:18 +0000 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=16255 University of Gothenburg via News-Medical – Middle-aged women who experience work-related stress have a significantly increased risk of future sick leave, a University of Gothenburg study shows. Lack of influence and conflicts at work are clear stress factors. The aim of the current study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, was to investigate whether work-related mental stress can be linked to sick leave among middle-aged women in the labor market. The data used in the study consists of information about 573 women of two different ages, 38 and 50, taken from the comprehensive Population Study of Women in Gothenburg, PSWG, at the University of Gothenburg. This was combined with register data on the women’s sick leave from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. Job conflicts are a significant risk factor When the study began, the majority of the participants (504 women) were employed and in work. Three out of four experienced work-related or general mental stress, or both. During the following year, 16% had at least one instance of sick leave lasting for two weeks or more, and the sick leave patterns were clear. Of 21 specific work-related problems, job conflicts and a lack of influence over decisions at work were most clearly associated with sick leave. In terms of job conflicts, this applied whether or not the women themselves were involved. Women who had reported job conflicts were more than twice as likely (a factor of 2.31) to take sick leave during the follow-up year. After adjusting for general stress, previous sick leave, age, sleep quality, wellbeing, and physical activity, the risk remained twice as high (a factor of 1.98). A lack of empowerment was also accompanied by a significantly greater risk of sick leave (a factor of 1.71 after adjustments). The importance of a better work environment One of the main authors in the study is Kirsten Mehlig, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Senior Lecturer in Health Science Statistics at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. “Little scope for decision-making and conflicts in the work environment can predict sick leave, independent of general mental stress and previous periods of sick leave,” she explains. “Improving the work environment is therefore important in order to reduce sick leave among women in the labor market.” The research team behind the study was led by Dominique Hange, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in General Medicine, and general practitioner at Närhälsan’s Tidan primary care center in Skövde. “Regardless of women’s own involvement, the effects of conflicts at work may also suggest a specific vulnerability among women that may be interesting to address in the future.” – Kirsten Mehlig, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Senior Lecturer in Health Science Statistics at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg Source: University of Gothenburg Journal reference: Mehlig, K., et al. (2024). Exploring the impact of mental and work-related stress on sick leave among middle-aged women: observations from the population study of women in Gothenburg, Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2024.2380925. To read the original article click here.

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]]> https://amazinghealthadvances.net/work-stress-linked-risk-of-future-sick-leave-in-middle-aged-women-8273/feed/ 0 A Plant-Based Workplace Wellness Program Put to the Test https://amazinghealthadvances.net/a-plant-based-workplace-wellness-program-put-to-the-test-8097/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-plant-based-workplace-wellness-program-put-to-the-test-8097 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/a-plant-based-workplace-wellness-program-put-to-the-test-8097/#respond Fri, 02 Sep 2022 07:00:10 +0000 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=15078 Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What is the return on investment for educating employees about healthy eating and living? “How do you wipe out the nation’s heart disease epidemic?” Those were the opening words to an editorial by Dr. Michael Jacobson, co-founder of Center for Science in the Public Interest, in the October 2005 issue of the charity’s Nutrition Action publication. Wrote Jacobson, “The best approach I’ve seen is the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP),” which was renamed the Complete Health Improvement Program and then most recently, Pivio. CHIP tells people to eat more whole plant foods and less meat, dairy, eggs, and processed junk. It is considered to be “a premier lifestyle intervention targeting chronic disease that has been offered for more than 25 years.” More than 60,000 individuals have completed the program, which I discuss in my video A Workplace Wellness Program That Works. More than 60,000 individuals have completed the program Most CHIP classes are “facilitated by volunteer directors, sourced primarily through the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who had an interest in positively influencing the health of their local community.” Why the Adventists? Their “health philosophy is built around the holistic biblical notion” that the human body should be treated as a temple. What’s more, many CHIP participants are Adventists, too. Is that why the program works so well? Because they have faith? You don’t know until you put it to the test. Researchers looked at the influence of religious affiliation on responsiveness to CHIP, studying 7,000 participants. Even though Seventh-Day Adventists (SDAs) make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, about one in five CHIP-goers were Adventists. How did they do, compared with the non-Adventists (non-SDAs)? “Substantial reductions in selected risk factors were achieved…for both SDA and non-SDA,” but some of the reductions were greater among the non-Adventists. “This indicates that SDA do not have a monopoly on good health…” Middle-class, educated individuals also disproportionally make up CHIP classes. Would the program work as well in poverty-stricken populations? Researchers tried to reduce chronic disease risk factors among individuals living in rural Appalachia, one of the poorest parts of the country. “Conventional wisdom has been that each participant needs financial ‘skin in the game’ to ensure their attentiveness and commitment” to lifestyle change programs. So, if offered for free to impoverished communities, the results might not be as good. In this case, however, the “overall clinical changes in this pilot study [were] similar to those found in other 4-week CHIP classes throughout the United States,” suggesting CHIP may have benefits that “cross socioeconomic lines” and are “independent of payment source.” So, why don’t employers offer it free to employees to save on health care costs? CHIP is “described…as ‘achieving some of the most impressive clinical outcomes published in the literature,’” including “clinical benefits of the intervention, as well as its cost-effectiveness…” Lee Memorial, a health care network in Florida, offered CHIP to some of its employees as a pilot program. (Sadly, health care workers can be as unhealthy as everyone else.) As you can see below and at 3:05 in my video, they reported an average 17-pound weight loss, a 20-point drop in bad LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure normalization in most participants. Lee Memorial initially invested about $38,000 to make the program happen, but then saved $70,000 in reduced health care costs in just that next year. How? Because the employees became so much healthier. They got a financial return on investment of 1.8 times what they put in. There hadn’t been a return on investment (ROI) study in the peer-reviewed medical literature until Dexter Shurney stepped up to the plate and published a workplace study out of Vanderbilt. “There was a high degree of skepticism at the planning stage of this study that active engagement could be realized in a sizable portion of the study group around a lifestyle program that had as its main tenets exercise and a plant-based diet.” Vanderbilt is, after all, in Tennessee, smack dab in the middle of the Stroke Belt, known for its Memphis ribs. (You can see a graphic of “Stroke Death Rates…by County” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention below and at 3:55 in my video.) Nevertheless, the subjects got on board enough to improve their blood sugar control and cholesterol. They also reported “positive changes in self-reported physical health and well-being.” Health care costs were substantially reduced for study participants compared to the non-participant group. For example, nearly a quarter of the participants were able to eliminate one or more of their medications, so they got about a two-to-one return on investment within just six months, providing evidence that just “educating a member population about the benefits of a plant-based, whole-foods diet is feasible and can reduce associated health care costs.” The largest workplace CHIP study done to date involved six employee populations, including, ironically, a drug company. The study included a mix of white-collar and blue-collar workers. As you can see below and at 4:40 in my video, there were dramatic changes experienced by the worst off. Those starting with blood pressures up around 170 over 100 saw their numbers fall to around 140 over 85. Those with the highest LDL cholesterol dropped 60 points and had a 300-point drop in triglycerides, as well as a 46-point drop in fasting blood sugars. Theoretically, someone coming into the program with both high blood pressure and high cholesterol might “experience a 64% to 96% reduction in overall risk of myocardial infarction,” a heart attack, our number one killer. As Dr. Jacobson concluded in his editorial in Nutrition Action, “For the cost of a Humvee, any town could have a CHIP of its own. For the cost of a submarine or a farm subsidy, the entire country could get a CHIP on its shoulder.” Key Takeaways More than 60,000 people have completed the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP), formerly known as the Coronary Health Improvement Project, an approach lauded by Dr. Michael Jacobson, co-founder of Center for Science in the Public Interest, for its effectiveness in battling the heart disease epidemic. A lifestyle intervention program, CHIP encourages its participants to eat more whole plant foods and less animal products and processed junk. Most classes are led by trained volunteer facilitators, many of whom are Seventh-Day Adventists, whose “health philosophy is built around the holistic biblical notion” that our body should be treated as a temple. About one in five CHIP participants is Adventist, but when researchers investigated the influence of religious affiliation on responsiveness to the program, they found that both Adventists and non-Adventists achieved reduced risk factors and some were even greater among the non-Adventists. When CHIP was offered for free to impoverished communities, the overall results were similar to those from other four-week programs in the United States, which suggests that CHIP’s benefits may “cross socioeconomic lines.” Health care network Lee Memorial and Vanderbilt University offered CHIP to some of their employees, and participants experienced improvements in their health, such as better cholesterol. Lee Memorial invested about $38,000 to offer CHIP and got a financial return on investment (ROI) of 1.8, saving $70,000 in reduced health care costs the following year. At Vanderbilt, health care costs were substantially lowered for CHIP participants compared to non-participants. Nearly 25 percent were able to eliminate one or more medications, for example, getting about a two-to-one ROI in just six months. The largest workplace study on CHIP involved six employee populations, including white- and blue-collar workers. Those starting in the worst physical condition experienced dramatic changes, with significant improvements in their blood pressures, LDL cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and fasting blood sugars. Theoretically, someone coming into the program with both high blood pressure and high cholesterol might “experience a 64% to 96% reduction in overall risk of myocardial infarction,” a heart attack, our number one killer. To read the original article click here.

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