Economic Analysis of the Return-on-Investment of a Worksite Wellness Program for a Large Multistate Retail Grocery Organization.

Objective: The objective of this study is to measure the return on investment (ROI) of the Price Chopper/Golub Corporation employee population who participate in wellness programs available to them.

Methods: Medical claims data, risk level, and presence of comorbidities such as diabetes and heart disease were compared in a matched retrospective cohort of participants and nonparticipants, with 2008, 2009, and 2010 serving as measurement years. Program costs and estimated savings were used to calculate an ROI of $4.

Nursing home staff perception of a falls management intervention.

Background: Many nursing home fall injuries are believed to be preventable. Little is known about the fall prevention activities nursing homes are using.

Methods: We conducted a census of all nursing homes in 6 Wisconsin counties by mailing a needs assessment to administrators and directors of nursing.

Barriers to the adoption of ergonomic innovations to control musculoskeletal disorders and improve performance.

Despite a growing number of published articles describing studies of ergonomic interventions, little is known about the barriers potential adopters face when deciding whether or not to adopt such innovations. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers identified by potential adopters of ergonomic innovations and compare barriers identified by individuals not interested in adopting to those identified by individuals planning to adopt. Eight hundred forty-eight fresh market vegetable farmers were mailed surveys measuring the adoption of and barriers to the adoption of several ergonomic innovations as part of a multi-year intervention study.

Strategies for strengthening the evidence base for employee health promotion programs.

Employee health promotion programs have been a visible facet of the American workplace for more than 30 years. During that time, a substantial amount of research on best practices has been conducted, but because of a lack of significant public investment in research funding there is still much to be done. Most researchers and practitioners familiar with the literature recognize the need to strengthen the evidence base for the field.

The use of health fairs in health promotion.

Health fairs have been a typical intervention for most worksite and community health promotion programs. They are often one of the first types of intervention selected for use. Historically, they can be traced back to public health interventions conducted at 19th century county and state fairs, and have shown considerable sustaining resilience over time.

Stakeholder analysis in worksite health promotion programming.

Stakeholder analysis is a formal management tool that is used primarily for planning purposes and policy development. A number of key planning questions are used to help identify major issues with internal and external stakeholders that can affect, or often are affected by, a worksite health promotion program. Organizational size is correlated with the various likely stakeholders.

A 4-year intervention to increase adoption of safer dairy farming work practices.

Background: Traumatic and musculoskeletal injury rates have been high in dairy farming compared to other industries. Previous work has shown that social marketing efforts can persuade farm managers to adopt practices that reduce injury hazards compared to traditional practices if the new practices maintain profits.

Methods: The intervention disseminated information to 4,300 Northeast Wisconsin dairy farm managers about three safer and more profitable production practices (barn lights, silage bags, and calf feed mixing sites) using information channels that these managers were known to rely on.

eHealth portals: who uses them and why?

The role of the Internet and specifically ehealth portals continue to expand at a significant pace. The various major functions of ehealth portals are identified, along with the results of an online survey conducted among employees of eight major U.S.

Volvo's "best practices" approach.

Editorial comments on the need for widespread consensus on "best practice" prevention targets and accompanying interventions are presented in Closing Thoughts.

Building a sustainable administrative infrastructure for worksite wellness programs.

As health care reform intensifies increasing references are being made to Worksite Wellness. These references are naturally leading to higher expectations for the effectiveness of Worksite Wellness programs. Yet the ultimate provisions regarding prevention and Wellness are not known.

Best practices for smoking cessation: implications for employer-based programs.

Tobacco use and smoking continue to be one of the most important potentially preventable health problems of the 21st century. A large number of studies published in the peer-reviewed literature now inform much of our employer-based programming efforts. Worksite settings and health plan member populations are served primarily through worksite-based interventions, which are examined in this literature review.

The use and value of information systems as evaluated by dairy and specialty crop farm managers.

Little recent research is available about where specific types of farm managers search for information about better production practices. The objective of this study was to investigate what information sources managers used and how they rated the usefulness of each source. The authors administered mail questionnaires to probability samples from sampling frames they developed for four groups: dairy and fresh market vegetable producers from Wisconsin and berry and nursery producers from a multistate region.