Employees working ‘on the line’ may suffer from high blood pressure or cholesterol levels without even knowing it.
By KEVIN SPURGAITIS
Today’s workforce faces challenges unknown to the workforce a century ago. Yesteryear’s health concerns of measles, tuberculosis and pneumonia have been replaced cancer, mental illness and especially cardiovascular diseases — those brought about by sedentary lifestyles, excessive commitments, poor nutrition and chronic stress. But increasingly, employers see the need for supportive worksite health policies and programs. They know that the healthier workers are, the better the bottom line.
In 2006, General Motors of Canada (GM) started its Break for Health Cardiovascular Wellness initiative at its Windsor, Ont. plant. The cardiovascular health program was developed by Whitby, Ont.-based Buffett and Company Worksite Wellness, funded by Shoppers Drug Mart and supported by the Canadian Auto Workers and the management personnel at GM. Break for Health is a completely voluntary and confidential, providing employees with the opportunity to be screened in the workplace for blood pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol.
Employees have the opportunity to sign up for a 10-minute screening appointment with a registered nurse and begin a goal setting process. Each participant receives a personal wallet card outlining their results. A pharmacist from Shoppers Drug Mart is also on hand throughout the duration of the screening clinics to provide supplementary information to participants should they require further advice. Three months following initial assessment, a telephone consultation with participants by a health promotion professional takes place. Individuals are encouraged to take charge of their cardiovascular health.
They are supported in addressing any high-risk lifestyle behaviours. After six months, those individuals who are at high risk in one or more areas have the opportunity to meet with a pharmacist to develop an action plan for improving his or her level of heart health risk. All follow-ups are geared toward the participant’s individual needs and health status. And at 12 months, they have an opportunity to be reassessed.
Currently, the program is in various stages at GM’s Oshawa, Woodstock and Windsor plants in Ontario and is now underway at the company’s St. Catherines, Ont. plant. In total, more than 1,300 employees at GM’s Oshawa and Woodstock plants volunteered to attend the screening for blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol. A combined 37 per cent of participants had high blood pressure, while 18 percent had high cholesterol. Thereafter, GM saw heightened awareness of personal cardiovascular risks among employees; successful modification of high-risk lifestyles (smoking, physical inactivity, etc.); and improved compliance to drug therapies. At the three-month follow-up, 42 percent of participating employees from the Oshawa plant said they would make changes to their lifestyle in light of their assessment scores. Thirty percent improved their diet, 29 percent started to exercise and 16 percent cut down or quit smoking. In Woodstock, 32 percent also made changes to their lifestyle. One hundred percent indicated they improved their exercise habits and 86 percent are making healthier eating choices.
If these behavioural changes among its employees last, GM foresees the eventual reduction of unnecessary illnesses altogether; and heightened employee morale resulting in a “positive organizational culture.” Both employees and management have been so impressed with this initiative so far,” says Jim Beaudry national health and wellness coordinator, CAW, GM. “It’s not always a convenient lifestyle working at a plant. A lot of workers may not have a doctor or be able to see them regularly. They may smoke and have high cholesterol, and pay it no mind. Well, GM employees are now becoming more active as a result of this program. People are doing everything they can to make lifestyle changes that enable them to have a better quality of life.”
Beaudry continues: “When people see their co-workers getting fit in the workplace and changing their lives, they realize they can do it too. It has a ripple affect, with people then thinking and talking about their overall health not only in the workplace but at home.”
According to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Canada. It affects the heart and blood vessels and can cause angina, heart attacks or strokes. About one out of four Canadians already has some kind of heart or vascular disease, like high blood pressure or hardened arteries. Age, gender and heredity have something to do with it. So do diet, exercise, smoking and on-the-job stress.
Eight out of ten people have at least one risk factor, either a health condition like diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity, or a habit like smoking, which makes them prone to heart problems, reports a 2003 Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)/Heart and Stroke Foundation study.
As a result, cardiovascular disease is costing the Canadian economy roughly $19 billion every year in medical services and hospitalization expenses. Cardiovascular related short-term disability accounts for $253 million of national costs for heart and vascular care, while long-term disability adds another $3 billion to the toll. According to the Conference Board of Canada, employer health spending rose by 26 per cent between 1990 and 1994. About 70 percent of that cost stems from cardiovascular disease among others. It’s not only making workers sick, it’s taking them off their jobs.
However, dropping total cholesterol levels by only 10 percent can cut the incidence of heart disease, for example, by as much as 30 percent, reports Buffett and Company. One of Canada’s leading providers of evidence-based worksite wellness programs, it provides comprehensive worksite health audits, including a full data analysis, employee needs/risk assessment and facility reviews.
In 1997, a National Wellness Survey conducted by Buffett and Company found that only 44 percent of responding employers provided wellness programs. Today, more than 90 percent of organizations provide some form of wellness, though many are just “testing the waters.” In the most recent survey, only 33 per cent of respondents said they developed a budget for wellness offerings and less than 30 per cent claimed they evaluated program outcomes.
People make most of their personal decisions — what to eat and whether to exercise — under their own watch, not the company’s. However, whether someone’s office is a cubicle in an urban high-rise or a spot on a factory assembly line, it has a direct influence on their physical and mental states. It’s singled out as a “priority setting for health promotion” in the 21st century, according to Janet Young, associate vice-president of wellness consulting at Buffett and Company. Generally, worksite wellness creates a culture conducive to health and well-being, which in turn increases employee productivity, loyalty and morale, reduces absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover and lost productivity, and positions organizations as “employers of choice,” Young says.
“But modifying unhealthy behaviours can’t be an off-the shelf approach; it has to be tailored to each organization specifically. … GM and the CAW deserve a lot of credit in this sense, in realizing the importance of their employees’ health through (Break for Health initiative). They are taking a risk by letting people off the line in such a production-driven environment. Meanwhile, Shoppers Drug Mart is being a wonderful corporate citizen by sponsoring this initiative.”
The heart health program at GM is like taking the doctor’s office and putting it into the plant, says Dean Miller, Shoppers Drug Mart’s director of pharmacy in Ontario.
“In an increasingly aging population, we recognize that a big part of improving health incomes is educating and raising awareness,” Miller says. “This is an area where Shoppers can play a significant role in health intervention and disease management. And most of our pharmacists have rose to the challenge to make sure they have involved themselves in (Break for Health). It’s the expansion of the pharmacist’s responsibilities to not only include the core service of dispensing drugs but really making a difference in the community.”
Originally published in the Canadian Healthcare Manager, September 2007
