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Workplace health promotion and employee health in Swedish municipal social care organizations

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Abstract

Aim

The aim of this explorative study was to investigate the employers’ management characteristics, their provision of workplace health promotion (WHP) measures, and employee satisfaction with WHP in relation to employee health in Swedish municipal social care organizations.

Subjects and methods

A cross-sectional design was used, and questionnaires were sent to top managers (representing the employer) and employees in a nationwide random sample of 60 of the 290 municipal organizations for the social care of elderly and disabled people in Sweden. The questionnaire data from the 60 managers were linked to aggregated employee data concerning self-rated health and satisfaction with WHP from a representative sample of 8,082 employees in the same organizations. All analyses were performed at the organizational level using independent t-test, Spearman’s rank correlation and multiple linear regression analysis.

Results

In the multivariate analysis, the organizational WHP index (i.e. local WHP projects and WHP coordinators), individual WHP index (i.e. health profile assessment, fitness activities and medical check-up), and the level of employees’ satisfied with WHP were associated with employee health (F = 9.64, p < 0.001, adjusted R 2 = 0.48). General organizational and management characteristics were, however, not statistically related to employee health.

Conclusion

The results suggest that the provision of individual-directed and organizational-directed health-specific measures were related to employee health in Swedish municipal social care organizations and, therefore, can be part of a comprehensive approach to address WHP.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Fredrik Granström for qualified support with the statistical analyses and Camilla Ramsten for valuable help with the collection of employer data. This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant No. 2003-0260).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, P.O. Box 883, SE 721 23, Västerås, Sweden

    Robert Larsson, Cecilia Ljungblad, Hélène Sandmark & Ingemar Åkerlind

  2. Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Cecilia Ljungblad

Authors
  1. Robert Larsson
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  2. Cecilia Ljungblad
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  3. Hélène Sandmark
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  4. Ingemar Åkerlind
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Correspondence to Robert Larsson.

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Larsson, R., Ljungblad, C., Sandmark, H. et al. Workplace health promotion and employee health in Swedish municipal social care organizations. J Public Health 22, 235–244 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-014-0616-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-014-0616-9

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