Larger Workplaces, People-Oriented Culture, and Specific Industry Sectors Are Associated with Co-Occurring Health Protection and Wellness Activities

Aviroop Biswas, Colette N. Severin, Peter M. Smith, Ivan A. Steenstra, Lynda S. Robson and Benjamin C. Amick
Additional contact information
Aviroop Biswas: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada
Colette N. Severin: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada
Peter M. Smith: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada
Ivan A. Steenstra: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada
Lynda S. Robson: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada
Benjamin C. Amick: Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, ON M5G 2E9, Canada

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Employers are increasingly interested in offering workplace wellness programs in addition to occupational health and safety (OHS) activities to promote worker health, wellbeing, and productivity. Yet, there is a dearth of research on workplace factors that enable the implementation of OHS and wellness to inform the future integration of these activities in Canadian workplaces. This study explored workplace demographic factors associated with the co-implementation of OHS and wellness activities in a heterogenous sample of Canadian workplaces. Using a cross-sectional survey of 1285 workplaces from 2011 to 2014, latent profiles of co-occurrent OHS and wellness activities were identified, and multinomial logistic regression was used to assess associations between workplace demographic factors and the profiles. Most workplaces (84%) demonstrated little co-occurrence of OHS and wellness activities. Highest co-occurrence was associated with large workplaces (odds ratio (OR) = 3.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.15–5.89), in the electrical and utilities sector (OR = 5.57, 95% CI = 2.24–8.35), and a high people-oriented culture (OR = 4.70, 95% CI = 1.59–5.26). Promoting integrated OHS and wellness approaches in medium to large workplaces, in select industries, and emphasizing a people-oriented culture were found to be important factors for implementing OHS and wellness in Canadian organizations. Informed by these findings, future studies should understand the mechanisms to facilitate the integration of OHS and wellness in workplaces.

Keywords: workforce demographics; health promotion; injury prevention; occupational health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2739/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2739/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2739-:d:187915

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().