Insurers, employers, and individuals create demands for laboratory testing in "wellness programs." Tests chosen to identify cases deserving intervention included routine automated chemical tests plus high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, ferritin, and thyroid tests. Participants' unwarranted concerns were addressed with a personalized reporting schema. We tested 1338 individuals, identified 224...

In an effort to reduce chronic disease burden on the workforce, both public and private initiatives have promoted the rapid expansion of workplace wellness programs to encourage healthy behavior. Despite enthusiasm about these programs, evidence for their effectiveness remains mixed. The major reasons postulated for these mixed results include low participation rates, heterogeneity in program d...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To explore the experience of living with a preexisting functional disability and a cancer diagnosis and to identify strategies that promote health in the growing population of cancer survivors. RESEARCH APPROACH Qualitative, descriptive. SETTING Four sites in the United States. PARTICIPANTS 19 female cancer survivors with preexisting disabling conditions. METHODOLOGIC...

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 us...

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence, demographic factors, outcomes, and preventative measures for substance abuse among nurse anesthesia students over a 5-year period from 2008 to 2012. An electronic survey was sent to 111 program directors of accredited nurse anesthesia programs in the United States. Twenty-three programs (response rate = 21.7%) reported data related to 2,43...

The ageing population of Europe is a concern for political decision makers and visions on how to deal with the issues are being debated. The issues raised concern elderly people, the age group 75-90 years, but not much thought is given the young elderlythe age groups 60-75 years-as the serious age-related problems are not visible among them. Nevertheless, pro-active preventive action programs a...

In this commentary, we argue that financial incentives are only one of many key components that employers should consider when designing and implementing a workplace wellness program. Strategies such as social encouragement and providing token rewards may also be effective in improving awareness and engagement. Should employers choose to utilize financial incentives, they should tailor them to ...

This article explores how employers can be part of the solution to obesity by offering workplace wellness programs and facilitating opportunities for physical activity, access to healthier foods and beverages, and incentives for disease management and prevention to help prevent weight gain among their employees.

“Personal responsibility” has become a recurrent theme in debates about health care financing.1 In addition to asking consumers to make betterinformed choices in seeking care, many payers are focusing on individual health behaviors as drivers of health spending. In a recent national poll, 91% of employers believed that they could reduce their health care costs by influencing employees to adopt ...

Given the provision of health and wellness services is shifting towards an interdisciplinary framework, human professionals may be in a unique position to collaborate with various pursuit client welfare. To competently engage interprofessional care, education (IPE) training programs necessary. This paper points alignment between organizations, values, practice Interprofessional Education Collab...