Healthy Workplace, Healthy Workers

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hypertension/tb/5622
WASHINGTON, May 10 -- An employee health program incorporating a fitness center, health education, and incentives improved workers' cardiovascular health and workplace safety, investigators reported here.

Explain to interested patients that a healthy workplace -- one that rewards and
fosters wellness -- may contribute to workers' health and on-the-job safety.
This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a
conference. The data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary
until they are published in a peer-reviewed publication.

Employees who availed themselves of those services improved blood pressure control by 9% and diabetes control by 15%, found Sharon A. Clark, D.H.Sc., of JEA, the municipal utility company in Jacksonville, Fla., and colleagues.
On-the-job accidents also dropped by nearly 70%, they reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.
The rising cost of medical care and an aging, predominately male, employee population (median age 47) spurred the utility company to do more to foster employee health, Dr. Clark said.
Their efforts began in 1989, when a dozen JEA workers approached the company to create a fitness center so they wouldn't have to walk the city's bridges to get their exercise. The company agreed to provide space while the employees provided the equipment and day-to-day administration. /.../