Healthy Aging for a Sustainable Workforce: A Conference Report

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Description:
  The Healthy Aging for Workers conference held February 17-18, 2009 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland resulted in the following findings: All workers are aging, but those that are older continue to grow as a proportion of the working population. As the available-worker population changes, many employers have jobs for which they want to attract and retain more experienced workers. U.S. workers are living longer than ever before and many are staying in the workforce past age 55. The current economic crisis puts great pressure on workers' families and their retirement plans, often forcing older workers to postpone retirement and stay longer in the workforce. The consequences of injury are, on average, more severe for older workers. Older workers more frequently sustain severe injuries than younger workers and require more days away from work to recover. Death resulting from work-related injuries occurs at higher rates among older workers than younger workers. Current knowledge about keeping older workers safe and healthy at work is insufficient. Yet enough is known to mount campaigns to improve protections to support the health and well-being of the current and growing numbers of aging workers. The February 17-18, 2009 Conference on "Healthy Aging for Workers" validated the recommendations of the earlier 2004 National Academies of Science panel report on "Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers" and made the following recommendations: More research is needed to understand how to prevent work-related injury, illness, and fatality among aging workers. Data systems necessary to track the health and safety of aging workers and the programs that address them must be improved. Knowledge gaps need to be filled to better understand the physiochemical, biological, biomechanical, and psychosocial factors that affect aging workers; Evaluation research is needed to determine the aspects of policies, programs, and intervention techniques and strategies that are effective and those which are not effective in addressing the health and safety of aging workers. Target policy to help maintain work ability as workers age including attention to: Quality and safety of the work environment; Public and private insurance designed to encourage prevention and wellness; Flexible work arrangements to achieve work-life balance; Social context of work (commuting, family, appropriate technology, etc.). Better enforcement of existing law and new legislation to: Provide tax credits for employers maintaining a tax-qualified pension or retirement plan and health insurance; Promote labor force participation of older Americans; Encourage use of appropriate formal, flexible work programs; Update the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to increase availability of COBRA and the Workforce Investment Act to improve training opportunities for older workers. Focusing on the health and well-being of all workers throughout their working lifetime will address the needs of older workers; however, due to the rapidly increasing numbers of older workers in the workforce there is an urgent need to give particular attention to understanding and addressing the needs of older workers now. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Age Groups Aging Workforce Construction Industry Construction Workers Injuries Injury Prevention Work-life Balance Work Environment
• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Publisher:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  52 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Kirkland, Katherine ; Dobbin, Denny
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057977
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2009 Nov; :1-47
• Contact Point Address:
  CPWR, 8484 Georgia Ave., Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20040801
• Source Full Name:
  Healthy aging for a sustainable workforce: a conference report
• End Date:
  20080630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:80e215c8a03ba4ce9df0e4318f510c7e72c1045e4733a9f104736481e84b0c86dd56b19dcc4a57c67b8a17d333bea138be84c46b903f3b80ad8f63ab357963ff
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213229/cdc_213229_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.17 MB ]