WHITE PAPERS
Virtual Partnership: Health Coaching Goes High TechRequest the full white paper
Jackie lives with her daughter and 4-year-old grandson — and she smokes three packs of cigarettes a day. The Gordian Health Solutions health risk assessment, the Personal Health Analysis (PHA) offered by her employer put Jackie into a high risk health category, so Jackie receives a telephone call from a Health Coach to talk about quitting smoking.
During the call, the coach makes several suggestions for cutting back: smoke only when Jackie is outside, skip every third cigarette, stop smoking earlier in the evening. Nicotine replacement therapy hasn’t worked before, and Jackie doesn’t want to try it again. She says she smokes for the stress relief.
Managing the Obesity Problem
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The numbers tell the story: more than 66 percent of American adults are overweight and 32.2 percent are living in the obesity range. Truly, obesity has moved beyond fat jokes to become a serious health issue, closing in on tobacco as the country's number one preventable cause of death.
Obesity: Counting the costs
A study released in 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that a poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump in just ten years. Obesity and inactivity increase the risks for the top three killers: heart disease, cancer and strokes. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle also strongly increase the risk of diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death.
Paying for Participation: Measuring the Results
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When it comes to population health management, dangling the right carrot is the best bet for healthy program enrollment.
Like the proverbial horse that is led to water and never takes a drink, many eligible employees never participate in health, lifestyle and chronic condition coaching programs offered by employers. The key is to determine which incentives will trigger the best response from any given employee population.
Gordian Health Solutions’ Geoff Alexander
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The author of two chapters of the “Society of Prospective Medicine Handbook of Health Assessment Tools" spent 20 years developing the computations and translating the science behind HRAs. These days, Alexander holds Gordian’s coolest job title, and as Chief Science Officer he oversees the development of new content for all of Gordian's stock HRAs, along with all the custom health assessments Gordian creates for clients. About 90 percent of clients using Gordian Health Solutions customize their HRAs, depending on how they plan to use it. For example, a client may add functional status assessment and health and productivity questions. Others may add additional questions specific to the work environment with emphasis on repetitive motion or safety issues.