Wellness programs bring healthy bottom line

Study finds employers get $1.64 back for each dollar spent.

It’s a small twist on an old maxim: you have to spend money to save money.

A recent study of eight organizations from the Halifax area indicates that by introducing a wellness program an organization saves more than it spends. As worker health improves, absenteeism costs and long-term disability rates drop, and healthier employees also are more productive and have higher morale.

The findings of the study, Project Impact, conducted by Aventis Pharma, Atlantic Blue Cross and the Atlantic Health and Wellness Institute, revealed that for every dollar spent on comprehensive wellness programs designed to reduce the risk of coronary problems or stroke, employers will see a return of $1.64. The returns increase for high-risk employees, like smokers, and for each dollar spent on wellness programs for blue-collar workers, employers can expect to save nearly $4.

In late 1999, 2,700 employees from eight organizations were screened and 61 per cent of those demonstrated at least two modifiable cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a lack of physical activity.

It is difficult getting management to believe they should be spending money on employee wellness, said Cathy Lerette, wellness co-ordinator for the Halifax Regional Municipality.

“You are not always going to see immediate benefits and a lot of employers want to see instant gratification,” she said.

There are two ways wellness programs show up on the bottom line, explained Benoit Cossette, a project leader in health economics with Aventis Pharma.

Employers can save money by reducing the costs of long-term disability from heart attacks, strokes and smoking-related lung cancer, he said. By studying the number of employees who were at risk for those conditions, the research team was able to make projections about the likely number of such cases. That could then be compared to the likely number of occurrences if risk factors are reduced through the program. The two rates could then be compared and the reduction in long-term benefits quantified.

Secondly, researchers asked employees to rate their productivity on a scale of zero to 10 and how often they were absent from work, said Cossette. After three months of participating in the program, participants reported a small decrease in absenteeism and an increase in productivity.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of Canadians and 75 per cent people have at least one risk factor, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol levels, that can be reduced through wellness programs, said Shelley Kee of Atlantic Blue Cross.

Just raising awareness about the dangers helped a lot of people. Many people didn’t realize they were in danger and hundreds of letters were sent to doctors notifying them of newly discovered risks. Several employees were actually sent directly to the hospital because blood pressure or cholesterol levels were so high they needed immediate medical attention, she said.

One employee from the Halifax Regional Municipality had no idea his blood pressure was so high, and he immediately had to go for treatment, said Lerette. He was off work for a couple of weeks but he could have been off for a lot longer if the danger wasn’t discovered and he had not received the medical care he did.

After identifying those who were at risk, 566 people were selected to participate in the study, and that group was in turn split in half with one serving as a control group, the other an intervention group that participated in the three-month comprehensive wellness program developed to reduce the factors that put employees at risk for heart attack or stroke. The program included heart health education sessions, individualized exercise programs, smoking cessation and stress management.

After three months, all risk factors were reduced for the intervention group.

Employers benefit in the short term just by improving the health of employees and over a 10-year period participation in wellness programs would translate into one heart attack avoided for every 100 participants and one stroke prevented for every 500 participants. The returns to employers are also greater for employees who are most at risk. For those with three to five risk factors the return is $2.04. With smokers, employers can expect to save $3.35 for every dollar spent. For employers with a largely blue-collar workforce the returns are considerably greater ($3.98 for each dollar spent). While it is not the case for everyone in that group, they tend to smoke more and are more overweight, explained Kee.

Due to the positive results from Project Impact the Halifax Regional Municipality decided to continue with its own wellness initiatives even after the project wrapped up.

They’ve done more screening, held lunch-and-learn and other workshops on nutrition. They’re trying to raise awareness about cancer and particularly breast cancer, said Lerette, though they are looking for a good smoking cessation program now. They now also offer employees memberships in fitness clubs through a payroll deduction plan.

For a wellness program to be successful, flexibility and creativity are essential so that employees can benefit from the program while still being able to do their jobs, she said.

And while they are making positive strides forward, there is still room for improvement, said Lerette. It is still a challenge convincing people about the value of wellness and some managers continue to balk about employees missing time from work.

“We are not at the comprehensive point yet,” she said of their program. “I will tell you we do have a ways to go. But the very fact that they agreed to allow me to take this and run with it is a step in the right direction and it shows that the organization is supporting it.”

For example, some of the other organizations that took part in Project Impact also continued with some of the practices on their own, but they don’t have somebody dedicated full time to promoting, educating and facilitating wellness, she said.

It takes a while to build momentum, to convince people of the importance of wellness and to generate buy-in. No doubt having the numbers from Project Impact will help make the case, but she knows it will still be a challenge getting everybody to make the kinds of changes it sometimes takes to live a healthy life.

“We cannot hold the hands of employees and force them to do this, but what we can do is facilitate opportunities for them to make their own choices. To aid them in the decision-making process, and education is a big part of that.”

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