Encouraging and maintaining a healthy workforce have become key components in the challenge to reduce health care expenditures and health-related productivity losses. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has thus updated its popular health promotion manual to help companies design and implement interventions that generate improvements in workers' health and business performance.
Edited by Nicolaas Pronk, PhD, the second edition of ACSM's Worksite Health Handbook: A Guide to Building Healthy and Productive Companies (Human Kinetics, 2009) connects worksite health research and practice to offer health promotion professionals the information, ideas and approaches to provide affordable, scalable and sustainable solutions for the organizations they serve.
Thoroughly updated with the latest research and expanded to better support the business case for worksite programs, the second edition of ACSM's Worksite Health Handbook includes the contributions of nearly 100 of the top researchers and practitioners in the field from Canada, Europe and the United States. The book's mix of research, evidence and practice makes it a definitive and comprehensive resource on worksite health promotion, productivity management, disease prevention, and chronic disease management.
ACSM's Worksite Health Handbook, Second Edition, has the following features:
â· An overview of contextual issues, including a history of the field, the current state of the field, legal perspectives and the role of health policy in worksite programs
â· A review of the effectiveness of strategies in worksite settings, including economic impact, best practices and the health/productivity relationship
â· Information on assessment, measurement and evaluation, including health and productivity assessment tools, the economic returns of health improvement programs and appropriate use of claims-based analysis and planning
â· A thorough discussion of program design and implementation, including the application of behavior change theory, new ways of using data to engage participants, use of technology and social networks to improve effectiveness and key features of best-practice programs
â· An examination of various strategies for encouraging employee involvement, such as incorporating online communities and e-health, providing incentives, using medical self-care programs, making changes to the built environment and tying in wellness with health and safety
The book is endorsed by the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion, a new ACSM affiliate society. For more information on ACSM's Worksite Health Handbook or other health resources, visit www.HumanKinetics.com or call 800.747.4457.
