Total Worker Health [2019]: Chapter 06: A Participatory Framework for Integrated Interventions

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cherniack, Martin G. ; Punnett, Laura
• Description:
  The Total Worker Health(R) paradigm poses an alternative to traditional workplace health promotion by recognizing the contribution of the organizational and psychosocial work environment to chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. The literature on mechanisms includes endocrinological and other physiological pathways, whereas newer evidence on behaviorally mediated effects is growing steadily (e.g., Chandola et al., 2008). Specific features of the work environment-from work scheduling to supervisor-employee relations-can act as either barriers to or facilitators of healthy behaviors. For example, low decision latitude at work is associated with obesity (Brunner, Chandola, & Marmot, 2007), alcohol consumption (Head, Stansfeld, & Siegrist, 2004), smoking, and reduced aerobic exercise during leisure time (Brisson, Larocque, Moisan, Vezina, & Dagenais, 2000). Having few decision-making opportunities is a notable feature of low-wage, low-status jobs, suggesting that work organization is thus also one mechanism of socioeconomic disparities in health. A separate organizational issue, also remediable, is the increasing use of extended shift schedules. The relationship of overtime work with clinical fatigue has been strongly established for driving crashes (National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Expert Panel on Driver Fatigue and Sleepiness, 1998) as well as with occupational injuries of other types (Dembe, Erickson, Delbos, & Banks, 2005; Vegso et al., 2007; Wagstaff & Sigstad Lie, 2011). The American College of Environmental and Occupational Medicine (Lerman et al., 2012) criticized the extensive use of overtime to compensate for short-staffing, noting its growing distribution and the strong association with absenteeism due to fatigue and health issues. Overtime work is strongly implicated in cardiovascular morbidity, with elevated risk of incident coronary heart disease (Virtanen et al., 2010) and nonfatal myocardial infarction (Hayashi, Kobayashi, Yamaoka, & Yano, 1996). There is also a marked association between overtime and depression (Virtanen, Stansfeld, Fuhrer, Ferrie, & Kivimaki, 2012). In contrast, a health-promoting organizational environment at work can provide time, space, and material and social supports for enhancing choices such as smoking cessation, healthy diet, leisure-time exercise, and improved work-family balance. This approach forms the basis for an integrated programmatic approach to health, safety, and well-being in the workplace that emphasizes creating health-conducive conditions of work. (Throughout this chapter, integration refers to the Total Worker Health [TWH] goal of simultaneously addressing both work and nonwork root causes for a broad range of worker health and well-being outcomes.) [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Health Promotion Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Health Promotion Total Worker Health TWH Work-family Balance Work Environment
• ISBN:
  9781433830259
• Publisher:
  American Psychological Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Name as Subject:
  Total Worker Health
• Genre:
  Book Chapter
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  21 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057119
• Citation:
  Total worker health. Hudson HL, Nigam JAS, Sauter SL, Chosewood LC, Schill AL, Howard J, eds. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2019 Jul; :107-124
• Editor(s):
  Hudson, Heidi L. ; Nigam, Jeannie A.S. ; Sauter, Steven L. ; Chosewood, L. Casey ; Schill, Anita L. ; Howard, John
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety ; Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  University of Massachusetts, Lowell
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20060701
• Source Full Name:
  Total Worker Health [2019]
• End Date:
  20210831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5f05aedb32d5c4d781da78756f93e14752ac6aa174d9d3e12f33ba92f9a43a00d28dc6784e8095bb587375a886e63ebac5b72f8188bf2d638b4fb44850dfee07
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/182932/cdc_182932_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.27 MB ]