How Dieticians Reduce Employee Absenteeism and Health Care Costs
If there is one issue affecting nearly everyone in the U.S. today, it’s obesity and related chronic health conditions. Nearly one third of all adults are obese, with even more people considered “significantly overweight.” Moreover, the number of people who are “morbidly obese,” meaning they are at a higher risk for serious health issues, is six times larger than it was 50 years ago and continues to grow.
The obesity epidemic is putting a major burden on the American health care system, as the medical costs skyrocket for people living with chronic conditions related to obesity, including diabetes and heart disease. However, what few people realize is obesity also creates indirect costs not related to health care.
In 2009, a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine revealed chronic health conditions, including obesity, cost employers nearly $150 billion per year in lost productivity. These costs come from employee absenteeism and presenteeism, when an employee comes to work but is unable to perform to capacity due to fatigue or other health-related problems. According to the study, for every dollar spent on health care, employers lose $2.30 in productivity.
Clearly, obesity and related conditions are a major issue. However, some employers are developing new solutions that will benefit both the company bottom line AND the health of their employees.
Good Nutrition, Better Employees
The leftover cake in the break room. The vending machine packed with sugary snacks. Busy days that leave little time for a proper lunch break. In many office environments, these are all part of the office culture. The problem is that when employees are already overweight or obese, a plate of pastries provided by a well-meaning manager only compounds the problem.
Some employers, though, are working to make changes to encourage employees to get healthy and stay healthy, and one area that’s gaining a lot of attention is nutrition. Some employers are even going so far as to hire licensed dieticians or nutritionists to work with employees to help them eat better and change their lifestyles. Studies show that when patients with nutrition-related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, receive medically-based nutrition therapy, they have fewer complications, lower health care costs and are less likely to be admitted to the hospital.
Those benefits extend to employers, as well. When patients engage in lifestyle adjustments guided by a registered dietician, their productivity increased by more than 64 percent and they had 87 percent fewer days out of work due to their illness. In more practical terms, the average worker missed work one day per year as opposed to five or more days per year when they weren’t working with a dietician. That may not seem like a significant difference, but when you are talking about a large group of employees, it adds up to a huge boost in productivity.
Company-Sponsored Nutrition Education
The growth in employer-sponsored nutrition education is creating new opportunities for dieticians and nutritionists. Many dieticians are being contracted as part of employee wellness programs, which are seeing unprecedented growth thanks to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Not only are some companies receiving subsidies from the government to cover the costs of wellness programs, they are now allowed to charge overweight or unhealthy employees up to 50 percent more for their health insurance coverage than healthier employees. This has created a major incentive for employees to take steps toward getting healthier.
Some of the ways dieticians are becoming a more important part of employee wellness include:
- Providing individual counseling to employees, either in person or online, that includes nutritional analysis, goal setting and support.
- Providing nutrition and health screenings to employees in conjunction with a licensed medical team.
- Offering nutrition education workshops to employees.
- Developing healthy food options in employer sponsored food service areas.
A study from the American Dietetic Association indicates the cost of implanting a nutritional education program — which generally runs from $150 to $350 per employee, per year — is offset by the increases in employee productivity. According to the ADA, for every dollar spent on nutrition counseling and education, the employer sees an increase of $2.67 in productivity.
The problem of obesity in America has a number of causes, but we can no longer afford to ignore the effects it has on our economy and our health. As more and more employers look for ways to contain health care costs and increase the productivity of their employees, expect to see a great deal more attention on nutrition, and wellness programs put into place to keep employees as healthy as possible.
Category: Health, Medical Insurance
