Reductions in employee productivity impairment observed after implementation of web-based worksite health promotion programs

The effectiveness of digital interventions for self-management of chronic pain in employment settings: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Chronic pain affects over a quarter of the workforce with high economic burden for individuals, employers and healthcare services. Access to work-related advice for people with chronic pain is variable. This systematic review aims to explore the effectiveness of workplace-delivered digital interventions for the self-management of chronic pain.

SOURCE OF DATA

MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, JBI, Open Science Framework, Epistemonikos and Google Scholar. Articles published between January 2001 and December 2023 were included. Searches were conducted between October 2023 and December 2023.

AREAS OF AGREEMENT

Workplace-delivered digital interventions to support self-management of chronic pain at work may improve pain and health-related quality of life in vocationally active adults. Delivering interventions outside of clinical services, through the workplace setting, may help to reduce inequity in access to work-related advice for people with chronic pain, and ultimately reduce the burden on individuals, employers and healthcare services. Interventions include mobile apps and web-based programmes.

AREAS OF CONTROVERSY

Studies were moderate-to-low quality. Most studies focused on exercise, few considered other aspects of pain self-management. Given the limited evidence in the current literature, consensus on best intervention format and delivery is lacking.

GROWING POINTS

More high-quality studies are needed given the heterogeneity in study design, interventions and outcome measures.

AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH

No interventions included advice on work-related adjustments or support. Few studies included work-related outcomes, despite the known impact of pain on work and work on health.

Impact assessment of e-trainings in occupational safety and health: a literature review

BACKGROUND

Implementing workplace preventive interventions reduces occupational accidents and injuries, as well as the negative consequences of those accidents and injuries. Online occupational safety and health training is one of the most effective preventive interventions. This study aims to present current knowledge on e-training interventions, make recommendations on the flexibility, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of online training, and identify research gaps and obstacles.

METHOD

All studies that addressed occupational safety and health e-training interventions designed to address worker injuries, accidents, and diseases were chosen from PubMed and Scopus until 2021. Two independent reviewers conducted the screening process for titles, abstracts, and full texts, and disagreements on the inclusion or exclusion of an article were resolved by consensus and, if necessary, by a third reviewer. The included articles were analyzed and synthesized using the constant comparative analysis method.

RESULT

The search identified 7,497 articles and 7,325 unique records. Following the title, abstract, and full-text screening, 25 studies met the review criteria. Of the 25 studies, 23 were conducted in developed and two in developing countries. The interventions were carried out on either the mobile platform, the website platform, or both. The study designs and the number of outcomes of the interventions varied significantly (multi-outcomes vs. single-outcome). Obesity, hypertension, neck/shoulder pain, office ergonomics issues, sedentary behaviors, heart disease, physical inactivity, dairy farm injuries, nutrition, respiratory problems, and diabetes were all addressed in the articles.

CONCLUSION

According to the findings of this literature study, e-trainings can significantly improve occupational safety and health. E-training is adaptable, affordable, and can increase workers' knowledge and abilities, resulting in fewer workplace injuries and accidents. Furthermore, e-training platforms can assist businesses in tracking employee development and ensuring that training needs are completed. Overall, this analysis reveals that e-training has enormous promise in the field of occupational safety and health for both businesses and employees.

Factors Influencing Acceptance of Personal Health Record Apps for Workplace Health Promotion: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study

Background

Health care technologies can help improve workers’ health and productivity by supporting workplace health promotion. A personal health record app is used to manage medical data such as results from medical checkups, which facilitates decision making for medical personnel. However, an analysis of users’ technology acceptance is required to provide appropriate services based on personal health record apps.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing the behavioral intention of health experts and workers to use an app in workers’ health centers and to examine differences in their perception of the main variables.

Methods

The study involved health experts and workers who visited 21 workers’ health centers in Korea to verify a research model in which perceived risk was added to the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, a representative theory of information technology acceptance. After receiving ethical approval from the Korea National Institute for Bioethics Policy, 1050 questionnaires were distributed over 7 weeks with cooperation of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. A multiple linear regression analysis and multigroup path analysis were performed to verify the hypotheses, and independent samples t tests were performed to analyze differences between workers’ and health experts’ perception of the main variables.

Results

The analysis included data from 866 respondents (687 workers and 179 health experts). Effort expectancy (beta=.08, P=.03), social influence (beta=.43, P<.001), performance expectancy (beta=.07, P=.008), and facilitating conditions (beta=.13, P<.001) exerted significant positive effects on behavioral intention, whereas perceived risk (beta=–.29, P<.001) exerted a significant negative effect on behavioral intention. Performance expectancy had a significant effect on path differences depending on gender (critical ratio=–3.38) and age (critical ratio=1.97). Workers’ mean scores for the main variables were higher relative to those of health experts for all remaining variables except perceived risk, and significant differences were observed for all remaining variables except facilitating condition.

Conclusions

Social influence exerted the strongest effect on behavioral intention to use the personal health record app. Consequently, it is necessary to coordinate health promotion activities in the workplace as well as the operational direction of community institutions such as in workers’ health centers to allow workers to manage their own health via continuous use of the app. In addition, the app should be developed based on a requirement analysis of the balance between both interest groups in consideration of differences in perspective between consumers and service providers.

Workplace Interventions to Promote Sleep Health and an Alert, Healthy Workforce

STUDY OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this review is to synthesize the published literature that addresses employer-initiated interventions to improve the sleep of workers and in turn improve health, productivity, absenteeism, and other outcomes that have been associated with sleep disorders or sleep deficiency.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic search and a selective narrative review of publications in PubMed from 1966 to December 2017. We extracted study characteristics, including the workers' professions, workplace settings and shift work, and workplace interventions focused on worker sleep. Because of the high degree of heterogeneity in design and outcomes, we conducted a narrative review.

RESULTS

We identified 219 publications. After restriction to publications with studies of workplace interventions that evaluated the outcomes of sleep duration or quality, we focused on 47 articles. An additional 13 articles were accepted in the pearling process. Most studies employed non-randomized or controlled pretest and posttest designs and self-reported measures of sleep. The most common workplace interventions were educational programs stressing sleep hygiene or fatigue management. Other interventions included timed napping before or after work, urging increased daytime activity levels, modifying workplace environmental characteristics such as lighting, and screening, and referral for sleep disorders treatment. Overall, most reports indicated that employer efforts to encourage improved sleep hygiene and healthier habits result in improvements in sleep duration, sleep quality, and self-reported sleepiness complaints.

CONCLUSIONS

These studies suggest employer-sponsored efforts can improve sleep and sleep-related outcomes. The existing evidence, although weak, suggests efforts by employers to encourage better sleep habits and general fitness result in self-reported improvements in sleep-related outcomes, and may be associated with reduced absenteeism and better overall quality of life. Candidate workplace strategies to promote sleep health are provided.

Sleep, Health and Wellness at Work: A Scoping Review

Many occupational factors may interfere with sleep. Sleep disturbances can, in turn, endanger the health and safety of workers. This rapid review of the literature identifies the main factors that alter the quantity and quality of sleep, indicates the effects these alterations have on the wellbeing of workers and suggests some health promotion measures.

Evaluation of a Digital Behavioral Counseling Program for Reducing Risk Factors for Chronic Disease in a Workforce

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a digitally delivered, intensive behavioral counseling program for a workforce at risk for obesity-related chronic disease.

METHODS

Employees were offered a digital health program modeled after the diabetes prevention program (DPP). Annual workforce health assessments were used to examine changes in chronic disease risk factors between participants (n = 634) relative to a matched comparison group (n = 1268).

RESULTS

Overall, employees were gaining an average of 3.5 pounds annually before program inception. Program engagement was positive; 83% completed the majority of the curriculum and 31% lost at least 5% of their starting weight. Compared with non-participating peers, participants demonstrated reduced weight, improved fasting blood glucose, and improved nutritional intake after a year.

CONCLUSIONS

The digital health program was effective for engaging employees in health behavior change. Digital options facilitate widespread implementation.

The association between modifiable well-being risks and productivity: a longitudinal study in pooled employer sample

OBJECTIVE

To examine the longitudinal relationship between modifiable well-being risks and productivity.

METHODS

A total of 19,121 employees from five employers participated in baseline and follow-up well-being assessment surveys. Multivariate regressions assessed whether changes in absenteeism, presenteeism, and job performance were associated with changes in 19 modifiable well-being risks.

RESULTS

Over time, a 5% reduction in total count of well-being risks was significantly associated with 0.74% decrease in absenteeism, 2.38% decrease in presenteeism, and 0.24% increase in performance. High blood pressure, recurring pain, unhealthy diet, inadequate exercise, poor emotional health, poor supervisor relationship, not utilizing strengths doing job, and organization unsupportive of well-being had greater independent contributions in explaining productivity impairment.

CONCLUSIONS

The often-ignored well-being risks such as work-related and financial health risks provided incremental explanation of longitudinal productivity variations beyond traditional measures of health-related risks.

Reducing the incidence of short-term disability: testing the effectiveness of an absence prediction and prevention intervention using an experimental design

OBJECTIVE

This multi-employer, prospective, randomized, controlled trial validated a quantitative model to identify employees at high risk of short-term disability (STD) and evaluated the impact of a health advocate nurse-led intervention on STD incidence.

METHODS

Following prospective randomization, the control group received usual and customary services while the intervention group received usual and customary plus additional services from Cigna.*

RESULTS

At the 12-month assessment, 16.8% of the intervention group had documented STD claims compared with 19.8% of the control group (P = 0.06). Duration of STD and return to work rate were not statistically different.

CONCLUSION

While not statistically significant, these results suggest that the intervention for employees at high risk of STD achieves practical and clinical significance by achieving absolute and relative reductions in risk of STD of 3% and 15%, respectively.

Health risk factor modification predicts incidence of diabetes in an employee population: results of an 8-year longitudinal cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To understand risk factor modification effect on Type 2 diabetes incidence in a workforce population.

METHODS

Annual health risk assessment data (N = 3125) in years 1 through 4 were used to predict diabetes development in years 5 through 8.

RESULTS

Employees who reduced their body mass index from 30 or more to less than 30 decreased their chances of developing diabetes (odds ratio = 0.22, 95% confidence interval: 0.05 to 0.93), while those who became obese increased their diabetes risk (odds ratio = 8.85, 95% confidence interval: 2.53 to 31.0).

CONCLUSIONS

Weight reduction observed over a long period can result in clinically important reductions in diabetes incidence. Workplace health promotion programs may prevent diabetes among workers by encouraging weight loss and adoption of healthy lifestyle habits.