TY - JOUR
T1 - Ten Modifiable Health Risk Factors and Employees’ Medical Costs—An Update
AU - Goetzel, Ron Z.
AU - Henke, Rachel Mosher
AU - Head, Michael A.
AU - Benevent, Richele
AU - Rhee, Kyu
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Frank Yoon for his statistical expertise and Mary Beth Schaefer and Paige Jackson for their editorial assistance. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - Purpose: To estimate the relationship between employees’ health risks and health-care costs to inform health promotion program design. Design: An observational study of person-level health-care claims and health risk assessment (HRA) data that used regression models to estimate the relationship between 10 modifiable risk factors and subsequent year 1 health-care costs. Setting: United States. Participants: The sample included active, full-time, adult employees continuously enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance plans contributing to IBM MarketScan Research Databases who completed an HRA. Study criteria were met by 135 219 employees from 11 employers. Measures: Ten modifiable risk factors and individual sociodemographic and health characteristics were included in the models as independent variables. Five settings of health-care costs were outcomes in addition to total expenditures. Analysis: After building the analytic file, we estimated generalized linear models and conducted postestimation bootstrapping. Results: Health-care costs were significantly higher for employees at higher risk for blood glucose, obesity, stress, depression, and physical inactivity (all at P <.0001) than for those at lower risk. Similar cost differentials were found when specific health-care services were examined. Conclusion: Employers may achieve cost savings in the short run by implementing comprehensive health promotion programs that focus on decreasing multiple health risks.
AB - Purpose: To estimate the relationship between employees’ health risks and health-care costs to inform health promotion program design. Design: An observational study of person-level health-care claims and health risk assessment (HRA) data that used regression models to estimate the relationship between 10 modifiable risk factors and subsequent year 1 health-care costs. Setting: United States. Participants: The sample included active, full-time, adult employees continuously enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance plans contributing to IBM MarketScan Research Databases who completed an HRA. Study criteria were met by 135 219 employees from 11 employers. Measures: Ten modifiable risk factors and individual sociodemographic and health characteristics were included in the models as independent variables. Five settings of health-care costs were outcomes in addition to total expenditures. Analysis: After building the analytic file, we estimated generalized linear models and conducted postestimation bootstrapping. Results: Health-care costs were significantly higher for employees at higher risk for blood glucose, obesity, stress, depression, and physical inactivity (all at P <.0001) than for those at lower risk. Similar cost differentials were found when specific health-care services were examined. Conclusion: Employers may achieve cost savings in the short run by implementing comprehensive health promotion programs that focus on decreasing multiple health risks.
KW - financial impact
KW - health-care utilization
KW - risk change and cost change
KW - workplace health promotion
KW - worksite wellness
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U2 - 10.1177/0890117120917850
DO - 10.1177/0890117120917850
M3 - Article
C2 - 32295381
AN - SCOPUS:85083554709
SN - 0890-1171
VL - 34
SP - 490
EP - 499
JO - American Journal of Health Promotion
JF - American Journal of Health Promotion
IS - 5
ER -