Tailoring existing employee wellness programs to people at risk of cardiovascular disease appears to improve workers' health, new research reports.

For a mere $5,500, Coors Brewing Company added a new program to its pre-existing Wellness Center, which tailored heart-healthy strategies to 25 workers known to be at risk of cardiovascular disease.

After 16 sessions, 80 percent of participants could exercise for longer, 56 percent experienced a decrease in total cholesterol, and 44 percent lost weight. One person quit smoking.

Although the program cost money and people took time out of their workdays to attend the sessions, the program will likely save companies money by reducing health costs and sick days, study co-author Wendy Segrest told Reuters Health.

"It is less expensive for the company to promote some of these prevention strategies" than to pay for treatment when workers get sick, she said.

Segrest added that many large companies already have on-site Wellness Centers, which sometimes include a gym, exercise classes and educational programs. Adding onto these pre-existing programs will cost significantly less than creating a new program from scratch, she said.

Although the newest program focuses on workers with cardiovascular disease, Segrest noted that companies can design similar programs for a host of chronic conditions, such as low back pain or diabetes.

According to the report, published in the American College of Sports Medicine publication Health & Fitness Journal, cardiovascular conditions are the fourth most expensive health claims cost among Coors workers.

To identify workers at risk of heart disease, Coors offered company-wide health screenings. People were asked to participate in the cardiovascular program if they had at least four risk factors, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and excess body weight.

Over 8 weeks, participants attended 16 ninety-minute sessions, during which they exercised and were taught how to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease. All sessions were conducted on company time.

In an interview, Segrest, based at the healthcare management consulting company Zoezi, Inc., explained that the new program differed from previous ones because it was more individualized and intensive, and included only people known to be at risk of cardiovascular disease, rather than being open to all.

In an accompanying article, Dr. Nico Pronk of HealthPartners in Minnesota, notes that employers are investing more and more in disease management programs, which often target cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes and asthma.

"This trend has great potential to complement and support worksite health promotion efforts, as long as the positioning of such services is strategically aligned across the population," he writes.

SOURCE: Health & Fitness Journal, May/June 2004.

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