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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, MPH¹, Lora E. Fleming, MD, PhD¹, David Lee, PhD¹, William G. LeBlanc, PhD¹, Katherine Chung-Bridges, MD, MPH², Sharon L. Christ, MS³, Kristopher L. Arheart, EdD¹, Terry Pitman, BA¹, and Katherine E. McCollister, PhD¹. (1) Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine - NIOSH Research Group, 1801 NW 9th Avenue, Rm 208-B, Highland Professional Building, Miami, FL 33136, 305-243-5912, lfleming@med.miami.edu, (2) Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016700 (R-700), Miami, FL 33101, (3) Odum Institute for Research in Social Science & Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3355, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Objectives: As society has benefited from higher life expectancy and improved health care, many Americans now face extending retirement. Changes in health savings, government policies, the economy and pension plan structures are all fueling a paradigm shift to either delay leaving and for others re-enter the workforce. Older worker lifestyle factors will increasingly affect health and job performance, yet little information is available on their prevalence in aging working populations.

Methods: Using the nationally representative 1997-2003 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), reported current smoking, risky drinking and leisure-time physical activity behaviors of current older workers were compared with younger workers and older non workers. These behaviors were evaluated by gender, race, ethnicity and occupation, as well as prototype “healthy” and “risky” workers.

Results: The present study population represented an estimated 123,052,357 younger workers, 3,917,960 older workers, and 28,879,284 older non-workers annually between 1997-2003. Older workers reported less current smoking and risky drinking than younger workers, but not compared to older non workers. Leisure-time physical activity was inadequate in all subpopulations. There were variations by gender, race, ethnicity, and occupation among the different US worker subpopulations.

Conclusion: Given the rapidly aging US worker population, all industries need to evaluate using the Healthy People 2010 guidelines, the healthy and risky behaviors of their workforce. Certain occupations, as well as gender-race-ethnic subpopulations of both workers and non workers, can be targeted for age-appropriate behavior prevention interventions as well as design of workplace policies to protect the rights of the older workers.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Describe the health behaviors of younger workers that participated in the NHIS.
• 2. Describe the health behaviors of older workers that participated in the NHIS.
• 3. Discuss the benefits of using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to evaluate US worker health behaviors.

Keywords: Aging, Workforce

Related Web page: www.rsmas.miami.edu/groups/niehs/niosh/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered