Addressing Obesity in the Workplace: The Role of Employers
Addressing Obesity in the Workplace: The Role of Employers
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00549.x
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发表时间：
2009-03-01
影响因子：
6.6
通讯作者：
Darling, Helen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heinen, LuAnn;Darling, Helen
背景：多年来，雇主们采取了许多策略来控制医疗保健成本和改善医疗保健。对通过使用与保险有关的技术（例如，除了事先授权、受限制的供应商网络），雇主也开始试图通过解决其雇员的主要生活方式风险来管理健康。减少肥胖（沿着烟草使用和不活动）是雇主寻求降低慢性病发病率和严重程度以及相关的卫生服务需求的优先事项。本文描述了雇主对肥胖成本影响的看法，讨论了雇主赞助的健康和体重管理计划的现行做法，提供了美国公司的例子，说明雇主的杠杆作用和机会的关键点，并建议政策方向，以支持雇主的举措，特别是对小雇主的扩展。研究人员和政策制定者经常忽视雇主赞助的健康和健康改善计划的广泛努力和相当大的影响。更多地关注在工作场所的机会是值得的，但是，支持雇主赞助的健康促进和健康的经济和健康的影响的证据基础正在增长，虽然不像大employer.Conclusions的经验基础那么快：公共和私人雇主可以通过解决肥胖为自己的经济利益。卫生保健组织，特别是医院，以及公共雇主可以成为重要的榜样。需要制定政策来加速变革，特别是对于较小的雇主（员工少于500人的雇主），这些雇主代表了美国雇主的大多数，并且提供健康促进计划的可能性要小得多。
Context: Employers have pursued many strategies over the years to control health care costs and improve care. Disappointed by efforts to manage costs through the use of insurance-related techniques (e.g., prior authorization, restricted provider networks), employers have also begun to try to manage health by addressing their employees' key lifestyle risks. Reducing obesity (along with tobacco use and inactivity) is a priority for employers seeking to lower the incidence and severity of chronic illness and the associated demand for health services.Methods: This article describes the employer's perspective on the cost impact of obesity, discusses current practices in employer-sponsored wellness and weight management programs, provides examples from U.S. companies illustrating key points of employers' leverage and opportunities, and suggests policy directions to support the expansion of employers' initiatives, especially for smaller employers.Findings: Researchers and policymakers often overlook the extensive efforts and considerable impact of employer-sponsored wellness and health improvement programs. Greater focus on opportunities in the workplace is merited, however, for the evidence base supporting the economic and health impacts of employer-sponsored health promotion and wellness is growing, although not as quickly as the experience base of large employers.Conclusions: Public and private employers can serve their own economic interests by addressing obesity. Health care organizations, particularly hospitals, as well as public employers can be important role models. Policy development is needed to accelerate change, especially for smaller employers (those with fewer than 500 employees), which represent the majority of U.S. employers and are far less likely to offer health promotion programs.