Total Worker Health
[3] Job-related factors such as wages, hours of work, workload and stress levels, interactions with coworkers, and access to leave and healthful workplaces all can have an important impact on the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities.
For example, there are work-related risk factors for abnormal weight fluctuations,[4][5] sleep disorders,[6] cardiovascular disease,[7] depression,[8][9][10] and other health conditions.
A TWH approach advocates for the integration of all organizational policies, programs, and practices that contribute to worker safety, health and well-being, including those relevant to the prevention and control of hazards and exposures, built environment supports, community supports, compensation and benefits, healthy leadership, organization of work, policies, technology, work arrangements, and workforce demographics.
Collaborators at the symposium, which included leaders from labor, business and academic communities provided evidence of work and health benefits from integrated approaches, case studies, and anecdotal reports.
[14] In 2008, collaborators at NIOSH and the Centers of Excellence developed 10 recommendations, grouped in practice, research and policy, as a long-range strategy for advancing the WorkLife Initiative.
These papers noted that a small, but growing body of evidence suggests that integrating occupational safety and health protection program activities with other workplace policies, programs, and practices is more effective for safeguarding worker safety, health, and well-being than either of these programmatic activities on their own.
[18] The year 2015 marked developments for the program and Office, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s granting of the mark “Total Worker Health” as an official registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the launch of the first Center within TWH, the National Center for Productive Aging and Work; and a NIH-cohosted Pathways to Prevention Workshop[19] titled: “Total Worker Health—What’s Work Got to Do with It?”.
A study from a large sample of Australian adults found that prolonged sitting was a risk factor for all-cause mortality, independent of physical activity.
Published research in 2012 on the benefits from implementing sit-stand workstations in the workplace has resulted in the development of some pilot studies for Total Worker Health.
A survey of over 1500 hospital patient care workers examined the relationships between health outcomes (lower back pain, inadequate physical activity, and sleep deprivation) and work context measures.
[32] Aging in the American workforce, the rapidly increasing numbers of older workers (ages 55 and above) comprising the workforce in the United States, could have significant impacts to the economy, social security benefits, occupational safety and health, health care, and American society as a whole.
Researchers from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) and NIOSH convened a national Invitational Summit on ‘’Advancing Workplace Health Protection and Promotion in the Context of an Aging Workforce’’ to address several questions and to develop consensus statements and recommendations for a national approach to tackle these issues.
[34] Each integrated program varies a bit in focus areas and in implementation, but follow the components of Total Worker Health.
Examples of companies that have yielded successful results from their programs include Caterpillar, FedEx, Dow Chemical and Perdue Farms.
