Profiles of total worker health® in United States small businesses.
BMC Public Health
; 21(1): 1010, 2021 05 29.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34051787
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach is a best practice method to protect and promote worker safety, health, and well-being. Central to this approach is leadership support and health and safety climates that support day-to-day use of health and safety policies and programs. There is some research that supports these relationships, but there is limited research amongst small businesses. Furthermore, it remains to be shown what role TWH business strategies, as reflected by organizational policies and programs, play in this process. The purpose of this study is to characterize small businesses by their organizations' TWH approach and assess the relationship of these approaches to employee health and safety behaviors.METHODS:
We utilized cross-sectional data from 97 businesses participating in the Small+Safe+Well study. We collected data using a business assessment tool, Healthy Workplace Assessment™, and an employee assessment tool, Employee Health and Safety Culture Survey. We used latent profile analysis at the business level to identify subgroups of businesses based on a set of characteristics from these assessments. Linear regression analysis at the employee level was used to determine profile association with employee safety and health behaviors.RESULTS:
There were two profiles characterized by the lowest (33% of all businesses) and highest (9%) levels of the indicators. There were also two profiles with higher scores on two of the different foci on either TWH business strategies (27%) or leadership and climate (31%). Employees working for a business with a profile that focused on leadership and climate, in addition to having a business strategy, reported the best safety and health behaviors.CONCLUSIONS:
Our study demonstrates that employee engagement in TWH will be highest when businesses have a strategy for how they implement a TWH approach and when they demonstrate leadership commitment to these strategies and foster positive safety and health climates. Our results offer suggestions on how to use TWH assessments to develop interventions for small businesses. More research is needed to understand whether small businesses can improve upon their profile overtime, whether these changes depend on contextual factors, and whether TWH interventions can help them improve their profile.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Occupational Health
/
Small Business
Type of study:
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
BMC Public Health
Journal subject:
SAUDE PUBLICA
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos