You are what you do: Employees of different occupations need more customized workplace wellness programs

Background and objective

Workplace wellness programs are being offered by employers for the purpose of improving their employees’ health. The objective of the study is to examine whether the participating employees’ health status, measured by five health metrics, differ by various occupational groups.

Methods

Data from 275,143 employees from 856 organizations were collected from 2004 through 2013. Participants were classified into eight occupational groups. Health metrics measures included Body Mass Index (BMI), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Cholesterol and Triglycerides. Cross-tabulation and Analysis of Variance were used for analysis.

Results

Among 8 different occupational groups, service and agriculture/equipment operators are the most obese, with 39% and 41% of workers having a BMI greater or equal to 30, respectively. Around 75% of health professionals had either normal BMI or were overweight. For SBP, 53% of Agriculture/equipment operators while only 38% of health professional had prehypertension SBP respectively. Factory workers had the highest proportion of high blood pressure (greater or equal to 140 mm Hg). Around 73% of health professionals had normal DBP, while only 53% of Agriculture/equipment operators had normal DBP. Manager/professional group had the highest percentage of borderline cholesterol (200-239 mg/dL), followed by technician and sales group (29.7%, 28.5%, and 28.3%, respectively).

Conclusions

The findings show that employees of certain occupations, e.g., agriculture or equipment operators, had worse health metrics compared to health professionals and other office-based workers. To improve the health metrics of employees in specific occupations, more customized wellness programs would be needed.