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Total Worker Health in Action: May 2014

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Volume 3 Number 2 May 2014

Managers’ Buzz

ANITA L. SCHILL, PhD, MPH, MA AND L. CASEY CHOSEWOOD, MD, MPH

As new beginnings unfold this spring, we are proud to announce a new organizational development for the TWHTM Program within the Office of the Director at NIOSH—we are now the NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health Coordination and Research Support (TWH Office). The exciting establishment of the new TWH Office enables more focus on selected high-impact future directions for total worker health, such as the creation of a National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) and a Workforce Development Framework.

The hallmark of high-impact future directions for the TWH Office will be the 1st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health, where NIOSH and partners will announce the latest research, programs, practices, and policy on integrating health protection with health promotion. Additionally, stakeholders will have the unique opportunity to comment in-person on the draft Total Worker Health NORA. The 3-day Symposium will be held at the Natcher Conference Center, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, just minutes away from our nation’s capital. Stay tuned as more details about the Symposium (i.e. speakers, pre- and post-conference workshops, and registration) will be released soon through a TWH in Action! News Flash and on the conference website, www.eagleson.org/totalworkerhealth.

In addition, we invite you to explore this issue of TWH in Action! to find other news, resources, and updates, all previewed below:

  • In Updates from the NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health Coordination and Research Support, you will read about a Institute of Medicine workshop that will identify prevalent and best practices in programs that integrate occupational health and safety with health promotion in small, medium, and large workplaces.
  • In Promising Practices for Total Worker Health, learn how Johnson & Johnson keeps their business strong by continually enhancing their organizational culture of health.
  • Continue to get inspired on the state of Kentucky’s efforts in Updates from Partners.
  • Be sure to check our Conferences, Webinars and Trainings to stay up-to-date on the many upcoming TWH events happening across the world. There is sure to be something close to home that captures your attention.

As always, we hope this newsletter inspires you to become a Total Worker Health advocate. Share your comments and stories about TWH in Action! with us on Twitter (@NIOSH_TWH), on the NIOSH Total Worker Health LinkedIn Group, or send us an email at TWH@cdc.gov. We’d love to hear from you!

TWH orange logo with registered trademark
In this issue:

TOTAL WORKER HEALTH® Exclusive

Impacts of Work Factors on Obesity, Cancer Screening, and Smoking Cessation: Recent Findings from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey Occupational Health Supplement

CDR SARA E. LUCKHAUPT, MD, MPH, MEDICAL OFFICER (EPIDEMIOLOGIST), NIOSH; REBECCA J. TSAI, MS, PHD, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, NIOSH; LEE C. YONG, PHD, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, NIOSH; AND CAPT GEOFFREY M. CALVERT, MD, MPH, TEAM LEADER, NIOSH

The Total Worker HealthTM approach is based on the idea that work and personal factors jointly impact worker health. But epidemiologic studies that examine how this occurs at a population level are rare because large-scale surveys rarely collect data on both personal and occupational risk factors among the U.S. population. One recent exception was provided when NIOSH sponsored an Occupational Health Supplement (OHS) to the 2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

The NHIS-OHS was designed to provide current, national estimates on the prevalence of common workplace exposures and work-related health conditions. Occupational risk factors addressed included work arrangements, shift work, work hours, job insecurity, work–family imbalance, workplace hostility, and exposure to chemical and respiratory hazards, including secondhand smoke. Initial publications presented the prevalence of each of these risk factors among U.S. workers in various demographic groups and employed in various industries and occupations [Calvert et al. 2013; Alterman et al. 2013a; Alterman et al. 2013b]. More recently, NIOSH investigators have begun using these data to examine associations between various work factors and several health and health behavior outcomes.

Obesity and Work Factors

Along with public health and health care professionals, employers are taking note of rising obesity rates among their employees because obesity is strongly related to several chronic health problems and concomitantly increased healthcare costs. Using data from the 2010 NHIS-OHS, we found that working for more than 40 hours per week and exposure to a hostile work environment were significantly associated with an increased prevalence of obesity among U.S. workers, even after adjusting for several demographic variables and health behaviors known to be personal risk factors for obesity [Luckhaupt et al. 2014].

Cancer Screening and Work Factors

Screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers increases cancer survival through early detection and treatment. These tests could be especially beneficial to non–day shift workers, given that shiftwork that involves circadian disruption has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a probable human carcinogen. NHIS-OHS data demonstrate that female workers on alternative shifts were unfortunately less likely to adhere to screening recommendations for breast and colorectal cancer than were workers on daytime shifts, even after adjustment for health insurance coverage [Tsai et al. 2014].

Smoking Cessation and Work Factors

Many employers are interested in helping their employees to quit smoking. Data from the 2010 NHIS-OHS allowed us to examine the association between smoking cessation and various work and personal factors. We found that interest in quitting was less likely among workers with long work hours but more likely among workers with job insecurity or frequent workplace skin and/or respiratory exposures. Attempts to quit smoking were more likely among workers who reported a hostile work environment but less likely among workers living in a home that permitted smoking. Successful recent smoking cessation (defined as quitting within the past year and not smoking for ≥6 months) was less likely among workers with frequent exposure to others smoking at work or living in a home that permitted smoking, but it was more likely among workers with health insurance [Yong et al. 2014].

Conclusions

Findings from the NHIS-OHS are providing novel evidence that work-related factors may contribute to certain health outcomes and health behaviors that have not traditionally been thought to be related to work. Public health professionals and employers should consider total worker health interventions that target organization-level factors, such as prevention of workplace hostility, along with individual-level factors.

For more information

General information about the 2010 NHIS-OHS can be found at /niosh/topics/nhis/. Sara Luckhaupt (sluckhaupt@cdc.gov) is the NIOSH project officer for the 2010 NHIS-OHS.

References

  1. Calvert GM, Luckhaupt SE, Li J, Sussell AL, Dahlhamer JM, Ward BW [2013]. The prevalence of selected potentially hazardous workplace exposures in the US: findings from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Am J Ind Med 56(6):635–646.
  2. Alterman T, Luckhaupt SE, Dahlhamer JM, Ward BW, Calvert GM [2013]. Prevalence rates of work organization characteristics among workers in the U.S.: data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Am J Ind Med 56(6):647–659.
  3. Alterman T, Luckhaupt SE, Dahlhamer JM, Ward BW, Calvert GM [2013]. Job insecurity, work–family imbalance, and hostile work environment: prevalence data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Am J Ind Med 56(6):660–669.
  4. Luckhaupt SE, Cohen M, Li J, Calvert GM [2014]. Prevalence of obesity among U.S. workers and associations with occupational factors. Am J Prev Med 46(3):237–248.
  5. Tsai RJ, Luckhaupt SE, Sweeney, MH, Calvert GM [2014]. Shift work and cancer screening: do females who work alternative shifts undergo recommended cancer screening? Am J Ind Med 57:265–275.
  6. Yong LC, Luckhaupt SE, Li J, Calvert GM [2014]. Cigarette smoking cessation in the U.S. working population, 2010: quit interest, quit attempt, and recent cessation. Occup Environ Med. Published online first: February 4, 2014 [doi:10.1136/oemed-2013-101852].

Promising Practices for TOTAL WORKER HEALTH®

In Promising Practices for TOTAL WORKER HEALTH® we share with you examples of how employers from across the country and from a wide range of industries are taking steps to integrate both health promotion and health protection in their workplaces.

If your organization is proactively integrating health protection and health promotion to prevent injury and illness and advance the well-being of your workers, please email us at TWH@cdc.gov.

Disclaimer: The mention of organizations and commercial entities and products in this article is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an endorsement by NIOSH, CDC, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Johnson & Johnson: Keeping Our Business Strong

CHIA-CHIA CHANG, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AND NEW OPPORTUNITY DEVELOPMENT, NIOSH OFFICE FOR TOTAL WORKER HEALTH COORDINATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

Johnson and Johnson logo

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) already had a robust culture of safety in 1978 when the company developed a vision to also have the healthiest workforce in the world. Now, over 30 years later, J&J continues to protect and promote the health of its 128,000 workers in 60 countries.

Leadership Commitment

According to Fikry Isaac, Vice President of Global Health Services, and Joseph Van Houten, Senior Director of Worldwide Environment, Health, and Safety, J&J addresses health and safety by “the three P’s”: Protection, in terms of safety and compliance; Prevention, to keep well those who are already well; and Performance, to lead in business by leading in health and keeping health front and center, as key business imperatives. The company integrates health protection and health promotion through their environment, health, and safety council, which includes the health and safety leaders across all the business units. Another demonstration of leadership commitment and support is the joint reporting of health and safety to the Science, Technology & Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors. Within its operating units, J&J also places critical importance on health and safety, such as assessing job tasks and work fitness and allowing for job rotations and exercise breaks if an ergonomic risk cannot be eliminated.

“Keeping Our Business Strong”

In the company’s strategic framework, the pillar of “Keeping Our Business Strong” prioritizes health-conscious and safe employees as one of five areas of focus. In J&J’s Healthy Future 2015 goals, as part of the “Engaged, Health-Conscious Employee” strategy, the company recognizes that both health and safety are needed. Its seven targeted measures exemplify an integrated approach.

  1. Employee engagement
  2. Employee access to “culture of health” programs
  3. Employee completion of a health risk assessment and awareness of key health indicators
  4. Health risks of employees
  5. Improvements in employee safety (lost workday case rate)
  6. Improvement in contractor safety (lost workday case rate)
  7. Improvement in fleet safety (auto crashes per million miles)

In J&J’s annual sustainability report, employee health and safety are reported on together, with measures that include personal risk factors, employee satisfaction, training hours, serious injury/illness rate, and safety fines paid.

Safety and Health in the Home and Community

Another example of J&J’s approach to the whole health of employees is the company’s initiatives to apply workplace injury prevention strategies to prevention of injuries off the job. To help employees be safe and healthy at home, J&J offers guidelines for home offices and education on musculoskeletal disease, including strains and sprains, lifting, and cumulative trauma. There is also training to provide employees with skills to be safe on the road, as well as safe driving tips for the entire worker population and the general public.

Demonstrated Impact

J&J has years of evidence on the effectiveness and outcomes of its programs. According to the company’s 2012 Citizenship & Sustainability Report, J&J has recently had the lowest rate of serious injury and illness cases since 2007 and has reduced its rate of lost-workday cases by 15%. Approximately 90 percent of its workforce is represented in joint management–worker health and safety committees. The company aims to continue to improve its safety performance, setting goals for reducing ergonomic injuries; slips, trips, and falls; fleet safety; and contractor performance. J&J has also evaluated its worksite health promotion program. The most recent independent study [Henke et al. 2011] found that from 2002 to 2008, the J&J workforce experienced reductions in many health risks: obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition. During that period, healthcare costs at J&J grew by 1%, compared with an average 4.8% growth in costs at similar companies. Overall, the worksite health promotion program had a return on investment of $1.88 to $3.92.

As J&J expands and new workplaces join its family of companies, it has opportunities to foster its values of employee safety and health in new working environments. J&J leaders recognize that strong safety performance must be ongoing and requires constant nurturing and support. Similarly, health promotion efforts require reenergizing the population and renewing the motivation of employees and families to participate and be engaged. The company will continue to set new goals to exceed its safety and health performance and sustain a culture of safety and health.

Reference

Henke RM, Goetzel RZ, McHugh J, Isaac F [2011]. Recent experience in health promotion at Johnson & Johnson: lower health spending, strong return on investment. Health Affairs 30(3):490–499.

Healthier Feds

A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the quality of the work environment is a predictor of individual health behaviours. In support of this notion, the federal government is providing opportunities for advanced health and well-being in its own workforce. The purpose of this section is to spotlight ways in which the federal community is improving the health and safety of federal employees.

NIOSH Walks the Walk!

CONSTANCE FRANKLIN, MPA, PUBLIC HEALTH ANALYST, NIOSH OFFICE FOR TOTAL WORKER HEALTH COORDINATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

Decreasing sedentary behaviours, on and off the job, and increasing regular physical activity can profoundly improve overall health. On April 2, the HealthiestNIOSH Advisory Committee, part of the Total Worker HealthTM Program for NIOSH employees, joined forces with the U.S. Public Health Service’s (USPHS) Junior Officer Advisory Group Working Group for the Office of the Surgeon General’s Every Body Walk! Initiative.

NIOSH celebrated National Walking Day by encouraging all NIOSH staff members in all of its locations to participate in at least 30 minutes of walking or other physical activity throughout the work day. US Surgeon General (Acting) RADM Boris Lushniak marked the day by leading a walk in Washington, DC with NIOSH staff and other federal employees around historic national landmarks. NIOSH also encouraged staff to use walking workstations, walking meetings, and destination walks. Over 82 NIOSH employees participated in employee-organized walks, and over 400 hours of activity on that day were logged from both the organized walks and individual efforts.

healthy feds walking outside

NIOSH employees walk around a neighborhood in Spokane, WA

healthy feds walking outside

NIOSH employees walk around a neighborhood in Spokane, WA

healthy feds walking outside in DC

Federal employees walking with Acting US Surgeon General Boris Lushniak in Washington, D.C.

Updates from NIOSH Office for Total Worker HealthTM Coordination and Research Support

Institute of Medicine is holding a Workshop on May 22 in Washington, DC

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is holding a workshop on the topic of “Total Worker Health: Promising and Best Practices in the Integration of Occupational Safety and Health Protection and Health Promotion in the Workplace” on Thursday, May 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. This workshop will help identify prevalent and best practices in programs that integrate occupational health and safety with health promotion in small, medium, and large workplaces. The workshop covered: best or promising practices associated with the design, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated approach to worker health; barriers to implementing these programs; and measures being used or considered to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. To learn more, visit www.iom.edu/totalworkerhealth.

Save the Dates for the 1st International Symposium to Advance TOTAL WORKER HEALTH: October 6-8, 2014 www.eagleson.org/totalworkerhealth

Updates from NIOSH Centers of Excellence to Promote a Healthier Workforce

The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW)

Recently published by CPH-NEW are four peer-reviewed publications and a CPH News and Views emerging issue brief:

Harvard Center for Work, Health, and Well-being

Musculoskeletal pain and injuries (MSDs) are widespread among health care workers. Long work hours, physical demands (such as moving patients), staffing patterns, and psychosocial factors have been associated with MSDs. Recently reported research from the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being provides results from a 3-month pilot intervention using Total Worker Health approaches for health care workers, conducted on seven units in two Boston hospitals. Pre-intervention surveys (374 workers) and post-intervention surveys (303 workers) assessed changes in safety, ergonomics, social support, self-reported pain, and physical activity. The intervention targeted ergonomics and safety, safe patient handling, and worker physical fitness through unit-wide activities, supervisory involvement and support, and worker education. Pain was reported frequently (81%), and physical activity averaged 4 hours per week. Significant increases in safe patient handling, safety practices, ergonomics, and supervisory support but no changes in MSDs or physical activity were reported post-intervention. Although safe patient handling, ergonomics, and safety practices are useful intervention targets for improving health care workers’ health and safety, intervention periods longer than 3 months may be necessary to show progress in reducing the risk of MSDs. The article is available at http://journals.lww.com/joem/toc/2013/12001.

University of Iowa Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence (HWCE)

The HWCE is currently reviewing pilot project grant applications for students, new investigators, and community-based organizations. The projects will begin in May–June of 2014 and focus on the development of new and innovative research projects and the development of a community-based Total Worker Health Employer Program. More information on past pilot recipients is available on the HWCE website at http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/HWCE/pilotproject/index.html.

The HWCE cosponsored the Corridor Business Journal’s Annual Healthcare Summit on February 14, 2014. The event was attended by close to 300 area business professionals and included a luncheon platform presentation on Total Worker Health: An Integrated Approach to Employee Well-being, by the HWCE Associate Director for Outreach, Dr. Jennifer Hall. Dr. Hall also presented the 2014 Corridor Worksite Wellness Awards to area employers with exemplary workplace wellness programs. The awards are based on the CDC’s Designing Healthy Environments at Work assessment.

Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (ORhwc)

The Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (ORhwc) is pleased to announce that the 2014 Occupational Health Psychology Summer Institute will take place in Portland, Oregon, on July 16–18, 2014. This year’s theme is Advancing Theory and Practice in the Context of Total Worker Health. The 3-day institute features regional, national, and international researchers and practitioners in occupational health psychology, total worker health (featuring presenters from all four NIOSH Centers of Excellence to Promote a Healthier Workforce), and safety research and practice. Visit the webpage (http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/centers-institutes/croet/oregon-healthy-workforce-center/education-outreach/ohp-summer-institute.cfm) for details and to register online.

The OHWC, along with the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences and the Oregon Public Health Division, will sponsor an all-day symposium on Sedentary, Stationary, and Physically Demanding Work: Health Consequences and Workplace Solutions. This event will be held on Thursday, June 5, 2014, at the McMenamins-Kennedy School in Portland and is also available as a webinar. The symposium keynote will be presented by Nico Pronk, PhD, FACSM, FAWHP, of HealthPartners and Harvard School of Public Health. Learn more on the website (http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/centers-institutes/croet/outreach/sedentary-and-stationary-work.cfm).

News from our Partners

Building Momentum in Kentucky for Integration of Health Protection and Health Promotion

MICHELLE LEE, NIOSH OFFICE FOR TOTAL WORKER HEALTH COORDINATION AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

In Kentucky, a multipronged approach to integration is being used. Current efforts in the state range from business outreach to pilot intervention programs in the community, and from joint meetings of safety and wellness leaders to instilling principles of integration in future practitioners. The overall vision is to bring worksite wellness and safety together with injury prevention, connect with the community, and create a statewide plan.

Strong Foundations in Injury and Violence Prevention

These emerging steps toward integration are building upon robust but historically separate existing safety and injury prevention programs and chronic disease and wellness efforts in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) at the University of Kentucky, one of the key parties engaged in this ongoing dialogue related to integration, examines worker violence and injury prevention both on the job—through the NIOSH-funded Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Surveillance Program (OSHS)—and off the job, via the work of the CDC-funded Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program (KVIPP). One notable ongoing project by KIPRC has been the targeted education and outreach to small businesses, providing education on the importance of having a worker safety program in place and resources to establish or improve such programs.

Meanwhile, momentum had been building at the state level for chronic disease prevention, especially at worksites, for the past 8 years through the Kentucky Department of Public Health’s (KDPH) Kentucky Worksite Wellness Program, led by Teresa Lovely.

One significant project completed in 2012, when the Kentucky Department for Public Health partnered with Western Kentucky University’s (WKU) Department for Public Health on a Health Impact Assessment on a tax bill for worksites, which added momentum at the policy level. KDPH and WKU’s Department for Public Health have also conducted a statewide assessment on comprehensive worksite wellness programs, using the CDC Worksite Health Scorecard.

Identifying Areas of Overlap, Building Consensus

Occupational Safety and Health Committee

An opportunity to bring together these parallel efforts for a safer and healthier workforce in Kentucky arose in December 2013, with a new Occupational Safety and Health Committee. This new committee would bring together worker health and health promotion, particularly with regard to off-the-job factors affecting workers, thus making a stronger case for return on investment when injury prevention is coupled with chronic disease prevention.

Kentucky Worksite Wellness Advisory Board

Such cross-collaboration has extended to the health promotion focus as well. The Kentucky Worksite Wellness Advisory Board, which met for the first time in late 2013, now also features safety and injury prevention representation on its committee.

KDPH is also in the beginning stages of collaborating with KIPRC and KSPAN to create a health promotion and health protection model for the KDPH Worksite Wellness Initiative, which is a statewide program targeting public health, universities, businesses, and nonprofits while bringing together expertise from a variety of sectors. As part of their initial planning and marketing process, KDPH, KIPRC and KSPAN have identified each of their partners and engaged in cross-marketing to better get the word out about their program. As Steve Sparrow, who leads KSPAN, noted, “If we want organizations to integrate, then we had better make sure that we integrate and work together.”

Phasing in Well-being

kentucky department of health staff experiencing wellness 'hands on'

Kentucky Department of Public Health staff experiencing wellness "hands-on" in a management staff meeting.

Within the Kentucky Department of Public Health itself, which has 400 employees, KDPH has implemented an internal program focused on employee well-being. One key to the success of the pilot was achieving buy-in of leadership, including having KDPH’s Deputy Commissioner as the keynote speaker for “Worksite Wellness: Gateway to a Healthier Kentucky.” This program complements “kyhealthnow,” a statewide effort based on health goals recently announced by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear (http://governor.ky.gov/healthierky
/kyhealthnow/Pages/default.aspx).

The lessons learned and tools from the KDPH efforts will be applied to an even larger pilot program for the Barren River Development District (BRADD), which contains 10 counties. The BRADD initiative, which will target issues including nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco cessation, will draw on a wealth of recently released tools, such as the CDC Worksite Health Scorecard and the CPH-NEW Healthy Workplace Participatory Program Tool, as well as on the expertise of colleagues in fields such as epidemiology, obesity, and evaluation. The KDPH Worksite Wellness Program has developed both a website (http://kentucky.stateofwellness.org/), and a learning management system in partnership with State of Wellness, a non-profit partner, geared toward human resources, wellness program leads, and other stakeholders to provide self-paced education and ongoing support related to well-being, leadership, and safety. KDPH hopes to eventually expand their efforts in the BRADD region to a statewide program.

Editor’s note: For more information on what other steps the state of Kentucky is making toward integrating workplace safety with workplace wellness, be sure to check out next issue’s Promising Practices!

New Initiatives and Resources

New Healthy Aging at Work Topic Page

The TWH Office has recently released an all-new NIOSH topic page titled Healthy Aging at Work that explores various issues and solutions relevant to protecting and promoting the health of workers throughout their lifespans. This is one of the first NIOSH topic pages to co-align with the existing Total Worker Health webpage, and it offers a worker-focused perspective on health and safety and chronic disease issues related to aging. The page features NIOSH research and recommendations for healthy aging in the workplace. The page also includes simple strategies and workplace solutions for an age-friendly workplace. The NIOSH Healthy Aging at Work topic page can be found at /niosh/topics/healthyagingatwork/.

NIOSH Total Worker HealthTM Webinar Series

Did you miss the first webinar of the Total Worker Health Webinar Series, with Dr. Laura Punnett and Dr. Ron Goetzel? The recording of the full presentation and links to the slides are now available via the website of that webinar’s cohost, the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workforce. Free continuing education credit is available for this on-demand webcast. For more details, please visit /niosh/TWH/webinar.html.

SAVE THE DATE! The next Total Worker Health Webinar will be held on Tuesday, August 19 from 12:00pm – 1:30pm EST. Dr. Leslie Hammer and Dr. Dan Ganster will speak on the topic of “Intervening for Work Stress: Work-life Stress and Total Worker Health Approaches.” More details to come.

CPH-NEW Healthy Workplace Training Webinar series

The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) Total Worker HealthTM Center for a Healthier Workforce launched a Healthy Workplace Training Webinar Series to demonstrate how to use the resources in the Healthy Workplace Participatory Program online toolkit. We encourage listening to past webinar presentations available on the CPH-NEW website. Past webinars have provided insight into the Intervention Design and Analysis Scorecard (IDEAS), a step-by-step tool used to identify the causes of work-related safety and health concerns and to design appropriate interventions.

“Healthy Jobs” for Small Businesses in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, legislators recently approved the “Healthy Jobs Act,” a bill that will help businesses with 50 or fewer employees more effectively promote the health of their workforces, while lowering healthcare costs and freeing up resources for creation of new jobs.

Eligible businesses can qualify for tax credits of up to 30% of the cost of implementing employee wellness programs, which could include work injury prevention, weight management, stress management, health screenings, nutritional education, health incentive programs, vaccinations, and employee physical exams.

Sources

Conferences, Webinars and Trainings

Dr. Anita Schill and Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will deliver the keynote address at the 3rd International Wellbeing at Work Conference, on May 26–28 in Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information, visit www.nrcwe.dk/waw2014.

LCDR Heidi Hudson will be presenting ‘Total Worker Health®: Rationale, Research and Practice’ at the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Manufacturing Sector Council meeting on May 29, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her presentation will coincide with two case-study presentations by industry representatives on approaches toward integration and building cultures of workplace health. A group discussion will follow on how the principles of TWH can be applied in manufacturing settings.

On June 17, LCDR Heidi Hudson will present at NASA’s Annual Occupational Health Conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. Her presentation is titled, NIOSH Total Worker Health®: An Innovative Approach for Healthier Employees.

Dr. Anita Schill will be one of the keynote presenters at the 1st International Conference for work and Spirituality at Lausanne University in Switzerland on September 9-11, 2014. For more information, visit www.travail-spiritualite.org.

Researchers and practitioners from the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (UMass Lowell, University of Connecticut, UConn Health Center), Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (Oregon Health & Science University, Portland State University), Washington State University, University at Buffalo, Connecticut DOC, Oregon DOC, Washington State DOC, and other stakeholders will convene a National Symposium on Corrections Worker Health to be held on July 15, 2014 in Portland, Oregon to include a webcast for national outreach. For more information please visit: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/centers-institutes/croet/oregon-healthy-workforce-center/education-outreach/corrections-worker-health.cfm. To register, email twh@ohsu.edu by June 16 with your name, title, organization, contact info, and area(s) of interest.

For past speaking engagements, visit /niosh/TWH/conferences.html
We would love to hear from you! Please send your comments and suggestions to us at twh@cdc.gov

This newsletter is published quarterly via email by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office for Total Worker Health Coordination and Research Support to inform members of the public health community as well as interested members of the general public of program-related news, new publications, and updates on existing activities and initiatives.