Category: Total Worker Health
NIOSH Takes a Stand
Over the past year, NIOSH and its Total Worker HealthTM Program have been traveling the country sharing the evidence and benefits of comprehensively integrating health protection with health promotion, including workplace programs that encourage physical activity, weight loss and stress management. Recently, we launched an internal NIOSH pilot program to explore the use of sit Read More >
Posted on by 63 CommentsJoint Pain in the Workplace
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) include a number of physical conditions affecting muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments, joints, and other soft tissues that can be caused, or exacerbated, by work. It is estimated that MSDs account for approximately one-third of injury and illness costs in U.S. industry. Many musculoskeletal conditions can result specifically in chronic or short-term joint Read More >
Posted on by 41 CommentsEven a Dummy Knows October is Protect Your Hearing Month
Meet Nick. Nick is a training mannequin who helps NIOSH teach young people and their families about preventing noise-induced hearing loss. Hearing loss can result from working around noise–even non-powered hand tools–without wearing proper hearing protection. It is not uncommon for a 25 year-old farmer or carpenter to have the hearing of a 50 year-old. Read More >
Posted on by 29 CommentsVHA’s Success with Increasing Movement at Work
How can we help keep employees from becoming office potatoes? It is a fact that a person who leads a sedentary lifestyle (commonly referred to as a couch potato) is at a higher risk of health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain cancers, but lately we have been hearing that sitting Read More >
Posted on by 35 CommentsSleep, Pain, and Hospital Workers
We know that decreased sleep duration and extended shifts in healthcare workers are linked to workplace injuries. The effects of decreased sleep on pain in the workplace are less clear. New research from the Harvard Center for Work, Health and Wellbeing –one of four NIOSH Centers of Excellence funded to explore and research the concepts Read More >
Posted on by 18 CommentsMaking the Case for Paid Sick Leave
Does it make economic sense for employers to offer or expand paid sick leave benefits to their employees? A new NIOSH study published in the American Journal of Public Health reported that workers with access to paid sick leave were 28% less likely overall to suffer nonfatal occupational injuries than workers without access to paid Read More >
Posted on by 36 CommentsSafer and Healthier at Any Age: Strategies for an Aging Workforce
Profound changes continue to unfold in the American workforce as Baby Boomers—Americans born between 1945 and 1964—swell the ranks of our workplaces. This has led many employers to fear the possibilities of negative impacts associated with this demographic trend. On one hand, they are concerned that having age-gifted workers on the job may mean escalating Read More >
Posted on by 17 CommentsThe Research Compendium: The NIOSH Total Worker Health™ Program: Seminal Research Papers 2012
In October of 2004, together with our partners, NIOSH sponsored the Steps to a Healthier US Workforce Symposium to mark the launch of a new initiative based on a comprehensive view of worker safety and health. The symposium brought leaders together from the occupational safety and health community and the health promotion community. We commissioned Read More >
Posted on by 14 CommentsNIOSH Research on Work Schedules and Work-related Sleep Loss
Yesterday, in honor of National Sleep Awareness Week, we blogged about sleep and work and the risks to workers, employers, and the public when workers’ hours and shifts do not allow for adequate sleep. This blog provides a brief overview of some of the work that NIOSH intramural scientists are carrying out to better understand Read More >
Posted on by 28 CommentsSleep and Work
Sleep is a vital biological function and many Americans don’t get enough. To coincide with National Sleep Awareness Week, the new NIOSH blog post: Sleep and Work summarizes the risks to workers, employers and the public when long hours and irregular shifts required by many jobs do not allow workers to get adequate sleep. Read More >
Posted on by 79 CommentsA Comprehensive Approach to Workforce Health
“Traditional” occupational hazards and personal characteristics and conditions, such as age, gender, genetics, or weight, are typically considered separately in the workplace. However, most of the diseases and health conditions experienced by workers are influenced by multiple factors. NIOSH authors provide a framework for considering the health of working people in a comprehensive manner. Read More >
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