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Abstract The recent passage of the Affordable Care Act has heightened the importance of workplace wellness programs. This paper used administrative data from 2002 to 2007 for PepsiCo's self-insured plan [...]

Objectives. Little is known about the effect of noncompletion on telephone surveys of health issues. This paper identifies a little-studied source of noncompletion, passive refusal, and evaluates its contribution to noncompletion bias along with two other sources: noncooperation and noncontact. Passive refusals include respondents who repeatedly request callbacks and households where interviewers repeatedly encounter an answering machine. Methods. Measures of noncompletion (noncooperation, passive refusal, and noncontact), demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health risk factors, and indicators of health care access and health status were collected through the Orange County Health Surveys on 4893 respondents. The surveys sampled by random-digit dialing and interviewed by computer-assisted telephone. Results. Passive refusals have a substantial impact on completion rates and bias due to noncompletion. Commonly used definitions for completion rates may underestimate the bias due to noncompletion because they omit passive refusals. After we controlled for demographic and socioeconomic factors, few noncompletion biases appeared on selected health indicators. Conclusions. These results suggest improved reporting of completion rates and support a multivariate framework for studying noncompletion in telephone health surveys. (Am J Public Health. 1993;83:94-99), Passive refusals may introduce bias due to noncompletion in telephone health surveys. There are three types of noncompletion: noncooperation, noncontact and passive refusals. Passive refusals refer to respondents who repeatedly ask to be called back and to households where answering machines are repeatedly encountered. Passive refusals are generally omitted when tallying completion rates of surveys, which may bias the results. A telephone health survey in Orange County, CA found that of the three types of noncompletion, one type of passive refusal - use of answering machines - may be related to completion rates. Answering machine owners varied significantly from non-owners in terms of age, marital status, socioeconomic status, health status and health risks. Redefining how completion rates are calculated and using multivariate statistical analyses may result in more accurate reporting of telephone survey results.

We measured the relationship between earthquake concern and preparation in a community with high seismic risk. Five samples of approximately 800 people were interviewed by telephone about their earthquake concern, but this study focuses on the last two samples in which respondents reported their preparatory behaviors. The findings were consistent in showing greater likelihood of concern for those who had experienced an earthquake, were female, younger, and non-Anglo and a greater likelihood of preparation for those who had more concern, were married, and had lived longer at their present address. In a nonrecursive causal model, no evidence was found for a reciprocal effect of preparation on concern. These results were discussed in terms of health belief models including the self-efficacy and 'stages of change' perspectives. Implications were drawn for interventions to increase preparation in ready-to-change groups and compensate for the resistance of those less willing or able to prepare.

This paper reports the second of two studies of the hypothesis that the economy affects suicide; both studies were based in the same community during approximately the same time period. Although many aggregate-level tests have been conducted using archival measures of unemployment and suicide (the approach used in Part 1), the impact of economic climate on suicidal ideation has not been measured at the individual level. In the study reported here, aggregate economic indicators were combined with individual-level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation obtained in a survey of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1982. Each of the two studies revealed small associations between economic stress and suicide or suicidal ideation, but they were inconsistent with respect subgroups.

Of the research on health and economic stress, the approach that has produced the strongest findings has been the aggregate time-series analysis of unemployment and suicide rates. A review of the literature indicates that this aggregate work has been disputed on both methodological and interpretive grounds. To address these issues, two studies of the relationship between economic stress and suicide were conducted on the same population. The first, reported in this paper (Part 1), replicated the aggregate time-series work with improvements in method, using monthly data for 1975 -- 1982 for Los Angeles. A second study (reported in Part 2) combined aggregate economic indicators with individual-level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation.

In this article the author reflects on the use of financial incentives within population health management and on the benefits that could be derived from avoiding the sole use of incentives and focusing on motivation-based approaches to improve population health and change health attitudes and behaviors. A discussion of the role that maintenance or sustained behavior change plays in the success of motivation-based health promotion programs and overall individual health is presented. Motivators which can be used to create behavioral change and improve health are examined.

The article discusses the Health Promotional Programs for office workers. Studies reveal the increase in the number of employers offering comprehensive health promotion programs and these strategies may yield a return on investment, in the ways of reduced absenteeism costs and health care costs. A lot of research and theory in the area of program participation is revealed like experienced staff, using incentives like tokens, providing a choice to the staff, tracking their program and bringing in as many participants as possible.

Objectives. Little is known about the effect of a noncompletion on telephone surveys of health issues. This paper identifies a little-studied source of noncompletion, passive refusal, and evaluates its contribution to noncompletion bias along with tow other sources: noncooperation and noncontact. Passive refusals include respondents who repeatedly request callbacks and households where interviewers repeatedly encounter an answering machine. Methods. Measures of noncompletion (noncooperation, passive refusal, and noncontact), demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health risk factors, and indicators of health care access and health status were collected through the Orange County Health Surveys on 4893 respondents. The surveys sampled by random-digit dialing and interviewed by computer-assisted telephone. Results. Passive refusals have a substantial impact on completion rates and bias due to noncompletion. Commonly used definitions for completion rates were definitions for completion rates may underestimate the bias due to noncompletion because they omit passive refusals. After we controlled for demographic and socioeconomic factors, few noncompletion biases appeared on selected health indicators. Conclusions. These results suggest improved reporting of completion rates and support a multivariate framework for studying noncompletion in telephone health surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter describes the processes believed to affect the performance of regional economies and the mechanisms that might connect these processes to the etiology of behavioral disorder. The initial findings of a major study of these linkages will also be summarized (based on Catalan & Dooley, 1983; Dooley & Catalano, 1984a, 1984b). The implications of this literature for economic policy and for the provision of mental health services are also surveyed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the second of two studies of the hypothesis that the economy affects suicide; both studies were based in the same community during approximately the same time period. Although many aggregate-level tests have been conducted using archival measures of unemployment and suicide (the approach used in Part 1), the impact of economic climate on suicidal ideation has not been measured at the individual level. In the study reported here, aggregate economic indicators were combined with individual-level measures of stressful events, symptoms, and suicidal ideation obtained in a survey of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1982. Each of the two studies revealed small associations between economic stress and suicide or suicidal ideation, but they were inconsistent with respect to specific subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]