Population Health ManagementVol. 14, No. 5 Letter to the EditorTwo-Year Outcomes Show Effectiveness of The Prevention Program in Lowering Health Risks and CostsRonald Loeppke, Dee W. Edington, Sami Bég, and Joel BenderRonald LoeppkeU. S. Preventive Medicine, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.Search for more papers by this author, Dee W. EdingtonUniversity of Michigan, Health Management Research Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Search for more papers by this author, Sami BégU. S. Preventive Medicine, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.Search for more papers by this author, and Joel BenderU. S. Preventive Medicine, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:11 Oct 2011https://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2011.0057AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"Two-Year Outcomes Show Effectiveness of The Prevention Program in Lowering Health Risks and Costs." , 14(5), p. 265FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byThe Affordable Care Act and Consumer Well-Being: Knowns and Unknowns6 January 2015 | Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 51, No. 1Does Health Risk Reduction Technology Really Work?Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Vol. 55, No. 6The Association of Technology in a Workplace Wellness Program With Health Risk Factor ReductionJournal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Vol. 55, No. 3Assessing the Benefit of a Health Prevention Tool Richard Preece25 June 2012 | Population Health Management, Vol. 15, No. 3 Volume 14Issue 5Oct 2011 InformationCopyright 2011, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Ronald Loeppke, Dee W. Edington, Sami Bég, and Joel Bender.Two-Year Outcomes Show Effectiveness of The Prevention Program in Lowering Health Risks and Costs.Population Health Management.Oct 2011.265-265.http://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2011.0057Published in Volume: 14 Issue 5: October 11, 2011PDF download

This study evaluated the impact of The Prevention Plan™ on employee health risks after 1 year of integrated primary prevention (wellness and health promotion) and secondary prevention (biometric and lab screening as well as early detection) interventions. The Prevention Plan is an innovative prevention benefit that provides members with the high-tech/high-touch support and encouragement they need to adopt healthy behaviors. Support services include 24/7 nurse hotlines, one-on-one health coaching, contests, group events, and employer incentives. Specifically, we analyzed changes in 15 health risk measures among a cohort of 2606 employees from multiple employer groups who completed a baseline health risk appraisal, blood tests, and biometric screening in 2008 and who were reassessed in 2009. We then compared the data to the Edington Natural Flow of risks. The cohort showed significant reduction in 10 of the health risks measured (9 at P≤ 0.01 and 1 at P≤0.05). The most noticeable changes in health risks were a reduction in the proportion of employees with high-risk blood pressure (42.78%), high-risk fasting blood sugar (31.13%), and high-risk stress (24.94%). There was an overall health risk transition among the cohort with net movement from higher risk levels to lower risk levels (P<0.01). There was a net increase of 9.40% of people in the low-risk category, a decrease of 3.61% in the moderate-risk category, and a 5.79% decrease in the high-risk category. Compared to Edington's Natural Flow model, 48.70% of individuals in the high-risk category moved from high risk to moderate risk (Natural Flow 31%), 46.35% moved from moderate risk to low risk (Natural Flow 35%), 15.65% moved from high risk to low risk (Natural Flow 6%), and 87.33% remained in the low-risk category (Natural Flow 70%) (P<0.001).