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Good
Health/Good Economy
Highlights
of Literature Review
This page highlights research and reports on the relationship
between health improvement and economic development.
RC/EZ/EC projects can use the following resources and
reports to:
- Highlight the benefits of health promotion programs
for businesses
- Show how health impacts employers and employees
- Help businesses to implement health promotion programs
to improve the health of their employees and improve
their business bottom line
- Develop programs that both create jobs and increase
health care access in rural and urban areas
12 Themes of Work and Health:
Overall, health impacts employers, individuals and
communities in numerous ways. The
California Wellness Foundation identifies 12 themes
from the research literature on work and health:
- Work is central to social status, one of the most
powerful predictors of health outcomes.
- Unemployment is associated with a large number of
health risks.
- Inadequate employment is also associated with poor
health outcomes.
- The degree of control that employees exercise over
their work influences health.
- At least one study indicates that every step up
the occupational ladder has positive health consequences.
- Access to health insurance comes primarily through
the workplace and has important health consequences.
- Worksite health promotion programs improve the health
of those who have access to them.
- Despite its overall health benefits, work can be
hazardous to health.
- Work influences the health of families and children.
- Health conditions affect work status.
- Income inequality affects health.
- An emerging social science framework integrates
labor market conditions, employment experiences and
health.
Linkage of Economic Development and Health:
The National Economic
Development and Law Center (NEDLAC) in its briefing
paper Establishing
the Linkage Between Community Economic Development and
Community Health suggests four areas in which
economic development and health intersect.
- Sectoral intervention - increasing access to long-term,
decent jobs
- Community-based workforce development - skills
training and job placement assistance
- Comprehensive community-building initiatives - partnerships
consisting of community organizations, faith-based
organizations, business, government and residents
- Health institutions as anchors in community revitalization
- community clinics, HMOs and hospitals offer stability
through employment and partners with neighborhood
business
Short and Long Term Benefits of Prevention:
There are various short and long term benefits of health
promotion programs for business. Partnership for Prevention,
in its report Why
Invest in Disease Prevention, concludes there
are three reasons that disease prevention and health
promotion are good for business:
- Lower absenteeism
- Higher productivity
- Stronger organizational commitment
Healthy People 2010: Worksite Health
A healthy group of employees enables businesses to
grow and keep a competitive edge. Healthy People
2010 can help communities and businesses establish
measurable objectives to improve the health of residents
and employees. Community businesses and organizations
can begin to implement parts of Healthy People 2010
in developing worksite health programs. A complete list
of Healthy
People 2010 objectives is available online.
For a list of the Healthy People 2010 objectives relevant
to worksite health promotion, plus strategies to help
employers reach objectives, consult the article, “Healthy
People 2010: Health Promotion Objectives for the Worksite”
in the Art of Health Promotion, Vol. 4, No. 5, November/December
2000.
The Partnerships for a Healthy Workforce provides
tools that businesses can use to create a healthier
workplace. This private-public Partnership focuses on
a narrow set of national
health objectives in three areas important to business:
Lifestyle Choices; Physical Environment; and Changing
the Landscape for Better Health. RC/EZ/EC projects can
use these objectives as a starting point for developing
community plans for improving health and economic development.
Healthy People 2010: Preparing More Minorities for
Health Careers
Increasing under-represented minorities in health professions
is a national Healthy People 2010 objective. A HRSA
companion document to Healthy People 2010, The
Key Ingredient of the National Prevention Agenda: Workforce
Development summarizes studies that show
how increasing certain minorities in the health professions
not only contributes to economic development, but also
increases access to medical care among low-income and
minority populations. This resource includes many examples
of community strategies and resources to help build
a pipeline for youth to health careers, including educational
outreach, scholarship programs, mentoring, and internships.
Among the programs that RC/EZ/ECs can access to increase
health professionals serving rural and urban areas are:
- Kids
into Health Careers. - This new HRSA program designed
to increase the pool of applicants from disadvantaged
backgrounds into health careers.
- Area Health
Education Centers (AHEC) - AHEC centers across
the nation strive to increase access to quality primary
care in rural in urban areas by improving the distribution
of health care workers.
Sources
Establishing the Linkage Between Community Economic
Development and Community Health. National Economic
Development and Law Center. 2001.
Lindsay, G. M., 2000. Healthy People 2010: Health Promotion
Objectives for the Worksite. The Art of Health
Promotion 4, no. 5:1-12.
el-Askari, G., J. Freestone, C. Irizarry, K. L. Kraut,
S. T. Mashiyama, M. A. Morgan, and S Walton. 1998. The
Healthy Neighborhoods Project: A Local Health Department's
Role in Catalyzing Community Development. Health Education
and Behavior 25, no. 2:146-159.
Desmond, K. Analysis of Community Development
Organization Efforts to Expand Health Services.
1997. Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.
Williams, D. Inequity and Health: Patterns and
Dynamics. 1997. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Flynn, B. C., M. Rider, and D. W. Ray. 1991. Healthy
Cities: the Indiana Model of Community Development in
Public Health. Health Education Quarterly
18, no. 3:331-347.
Reflections:
On the Connections Between Work and Health.
The California Wellness Foundation.
Why Invest in Disease Prevention? It's a Good
Business Decision. It's Good for American Business.
Partnership for Prevention
The
Key Ingredient of the National Prevention Agenda: Workforce
Development. (A companion document to Healthy People
2010)
Area Health Education
Centers (AHEC).
Kids
into Health Careers.
The
Business Interest in a Community's Health
The Washington Business Group on Health prepared The
Business Interest in a Community's Health for The
W. K. Kellogg Foundation. This 30 page document investigates
the community health values of large and medium-size
employers, and the potential roles for businesses in
improving community health so that health care and public
health activities can be directed more effectively.
(back to top)
Fact
Sheets
Building Healthy
RC/EZ/EC (Click
here for PDF version)
The Connection
Between Work and Health (Click
here for PDF version)
(back to top)
Newsletter
Articles
Renewal Communities,
Empowerment Zones, and Enterprise Communities (Click
here for PDF version)
Improving Health
and Economic Development in RC/EZ/ECs (Click
here for PDF version)
Healthy RC/EZ/EC:
The Role of Business (Click
here for PDF version)
Good Health - Good
Economy Quiz (Click
here for PDF version)
(back to top)
Links
The California Wellness
Foundation:
Work
and Health Program
Diversity
in the Health Professions
The California Wellness Foundation provides support
and funding to organizations that work to improve
the health of vulnerable working populations and the
unemployed, or who provide training to help low-income
youth find employment with health benefits. The mission
is to address health needs of traditionally underserved,
low-income, rural residents and to assist leaders
who are working to improve health within their communities.
While the foundation focuses on California, publications
and newsletters can be of use to anyone. RC/EZ/EC
projects can learn from successful initiatives funded
by the foundation or access their Reflections
series, with issues on Capacity Building and Connections
Between Work and Health.
The National Economic
Development and Law Center
The mission of the National Economic Development
and Law Center is to help low-income persons and communities
with community-building skills and creativity, leadership
development, and local capacity building. The goal
is to create greater economic, social, cultural, social
and human development. The NEDLC produces a briefing
paper, Establishing
the Linkage Between Community Economic Development
and Community Health, which can be viewed on-line.
Partnership for
Prevention
The mission of Partnership for Prevention is to coordinate
efforts of its members to make prevention a visible
and viable means to improve the nation's health. Publications
are available from the website (some free, some for
minimal cost) including "Why Invest in Disease
Prevention?" which can be downloaded from the
Publications
Page. The Partnerships suggests that businesses
can contribute to the health of the nation by offering
employee health promotion programs, comprehensive
health benefits, safety policies and partnering with
community efforts.
Partnerships
for a Healthy Workforce, a part of Partnerships
for Prevention, aims to engage the business community
to improve the health of its employees and its productivity.
RC/EZ/EC projects can access information on business-oriented
Healthy People 2010 objectives from this site.
This site helps the business community by making Healthy
People 2010 objectives accessible.
Livable
Communities
This site offers information on livable communities
and about Federal agencies' efforts to assist communities.
Information on achieving a high quality of life and
strong economic growth is available. This site offers
links to program descriptions, resources, guides and
tools to assist a community to become stronger and healthier.
RC/EZ/EC projects can find out what other communities
are doing by accessing the "Example
Community Work" section.
Tools
for a Sustainable Community
This site, by the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives, offers tools for working
toward a sustainable community. The steps of a sustainable
community include community-driven strategic planning,
improving community and building design, decreasing
sprawl, creating a strong and diversified local economy,
and increasing jobs. This site offers an RC/EZ/EC
project numerous resources and links for technical
assistance, funding sources and publications.
Healthy
People 2010
Healthy People 2010 is a comprehensive, nationwide
health promotion and disease prevention agenda. The
overarching purpose of Healthy People 2010 is promoting
health and preventing illness, disability, and premature
death. Several areas can be used in developing community
health programs, developing community capacity, and
increasing health status. Healthy People objectives
that can be used with economic development and health
include access to health care, occupational safety
and health, and public health infrastructure.
Healthy People 2010 offers information on the relationship
between income and health, health disparities, and
achieving equity in access to health care. RC/EZ/EC
projects can access information, background data,
and charts on determinants of health.
Health Resources and
Services Administration
The
Key Ingredient of the National Prevention Agenda:
Workforce Development, A Companion Document to Healthy
People 2010 The document aims to assist states
and communities in addressing the national, public
health workforce development objectives for the health
professions and public health agencies.
Area Health
Education Centers AHEC centers across the
nation strive to increase access to quality primary
care in rural in urban areas by improving the distribution
of health care workers.
Kids
Into Health Careers Kids Into Health Careers
is a new HRSA program designed to increase the pool
of applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds into
health careers.
Scholarship and Job Connections
America's Job Bank
(back to top)
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These technical assistance resources for RC/EZ/ECs were
funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through a cooperative
agreement administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), and prepared by the Public Health Foundation. Duplication
and adaptation, with credit, are encouraged. |
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