The new word around town is that, with the present economic slump in the United States, if you don’t feel any anxiety, then you don’t have a pulse.
“Frankly, recently with the recession, we joke that if you don’t feel stressed, then you are not alive,” said Helen Darling, the director of the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) in Washington D.C.
Wednesday, the NBGH released data from its most recent study, surveying the health of its members who work at companies of 2,000 or more employees. Darling shared what, in her eyes, is good news: people are more focused now than ever before on living healthy lifestyles.
The press conference discussion, held at the National Press Club, was heavy with data (each attendee received a large printed survey packet highlighting the research figures), but may not be as conclusive as it seemed.
The survey, titled “The Recession’s Toll on Employee’s Health,” profiled a group of 1,500 employees, covering a variety of personal health topics including exercise, diet, clinical and emergency medical care, insurance, prescription drugs, and psychological health. What the NBGH wanted to know was: how could companies help people in their desire to form healthier life habits?
“Healthcare is more of a priority than a year ago,” Darling said. “And we are very happy to see that, I might add. It’s really saving and living a healthier lifestyle that makes people’s priority list.”
When the NBGH surveyed its sample group, the survey showed that there was a 34 percent increase in exercise among the employees within the past year. Since 2008, there was also a 46 percent increase in healthy eating habits.
Darling noted that this increased focus on health is filling a void within the American population. The United States Department of Labor states that the unemployment rate is now at 15.8 percent, as of May 2009. The statistics continue to look bleak.
“It’s one thing to lose a job in a bubble economy, it’s another to lose a job in this economy,” said Darling.
Yet, on the upside of things, without a job, many people found that they have more time to focus on healthy behaviors such as exercising and making healthy eating choices.
“You want to take care of yourself now so that stay healthy in the future,” Darling said. She reasoned that people are willing to take care of themselves because they realize that focusing on health now, could keep the doctor bills to a minimum down the road. And that’s always good when you have very little cash.
“Exercise is a silver bullet,” said Darling multiple times. “I know I sound like I’m a wild woman on the subject, but it really is. You can just walk around the block at no charge.”
However, the validity of Darling’s happy “Pollyanna diagnosis” of the increased health of the American people could be short lived. Dr. Patricia Rieker, an associate professor of psychiatry and sociology at Harvard Medical School, specializes in public health. She said that the NBGH survey shows accurate trends in health; however, they aren’t really portraying the whole picture. There is data missing.
“Everyone values their health,” said Rieker. “The problem is (as I argued
In my book, Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies) that they lack the opportunities and options to pursue health.”
The NBGH addressed this problem, by saying that it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the opportunities are available to people and to encourage them to take advantage of health programs through special incentives and benefits.
“In difficult times, all benefits take on more value,” said Darling. She argued that people would utilize free or low-cost programs such as company gym memberships, nurse hotlines, generic and mail order medications, and free employee psychology sessions. Darling stated that instead of foregoing care in the present recession, people needed to manage their care. And employers should help them with that.
But are employee benefits the only factor affecting people’s ability to get healthier? Rieker argued, “The question then becomes--which people? That's why income, race and class are important to know. Those with the greater resources and options always take advantage of trends and encouragement to make healthier choices.”
The NBGH said that it did not pay attention to factors such as race, gender, annual income, or prior health issues because none of these things had a significant impact on the data.
“We had very little difference in responses from people due to ethnicity or geography. The disparities are fairly insignificant when you work at large employers. It’s fairly homogeneous,” said NBGH survey conductor, Karen O. Marlo, the director of benchmarking and analysis at Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions.
There may be little variance amongst the sample group that the NBGH surveyed in their study, however, it is important not to forget that they are surveying people who have retained their jobs throughout the economic slump—which is a lot to say, nowadays. Therefore, their profile sample is not accurate of a random sample of the U.S. population. Factors such as family size, savings, family support, education, geographical location, and ethnicity can play a key role in determining how a person views health and its priority in their lives.
This means that we should not brush aside the notion that factors such as race influence a healthy lifestyle, merely because the NBGH report says so.
But Rieker doesn’t argue that employers could do more for their workers. She said, “Of course there are many ways that employers can contribute to health with a variety of policies from work load, participatory decision making, cafeteria choices, anti smoking campaigns, on-site day care, ‘green buildings,’ easy access to exercise facilities and family friendly policies.”
Darling credits her organization’s push for greater employer participation in health status as part of human nature.
“It’s getting back to Basics,” said Darling, “Paying attention to what matters.”
By Catherine Moore, camoore@bu.edu
