A recent study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Penn State University suggests that increasing workplace flexibility might decrease the likelihood of cardiovascular disease among employees. This research found that in environments where measures were taken to minimize the clash between work demands and employees’ personal or family responsibilities, those employees who initially faced a higher risk of cardiometabolic issues, especially those of older age, witnessed a significant decrease in cardiovascular risk. This decrease was comparable to the reversal of five to ten years of age-related cardiometabolic deterioration.

Scheduled for publication on November 8 in The American Journal of Public Health, this study pioneers the evaluation of how modifications in workplace conditions can influence cardiometabolic health risks. Lisa Berkman, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, co-led the study. Berkman highlighted the significance of work conditions as crucial social determinants of health. She noted that alleviating work-related stress and work-family conflicts led to a noticeable decline in cardiovascular risk among the more susceptible workers without adversely affecting their productivity. This outcome holds significant implications for employees in low- and middle-income brackets who generally have lesser control over their work schedules and demands, facing more substantial health disparities.

The study was part of the Work, Family, and Health Network’s efforts. It introduced an intervention aimed at enhancing work-life balance. Supervisors received training on recognizing and supporting their employees’ personal and family needs alongside work performance. Additionally, supervisors and their teams participated in practical sessions to explore new ways to increase employees’ autonomy over their work schedules and tasks.

The intervention was tested within two companies: an IT firm with 555 employees and a long-term care provider with 973 workers. The former mainly comprised male and female employees in high and moderate-salaried technical roles, whereas the latter predominantly employed low-wage female caregivers. Control groups from other units/sites continued their usual routines without the intervention.

Researchers tracked various health indicators of these 1,528 employees, including systolic blood pressure, body mass index, glycated haemoglobin levels, smoking status, HDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol, at the start and again 12 months later. These metrics were used to compute each employee’s cardiometabolic risk score (CRS), predicting the risk of developing cardiovascular disease within ten years.

Although the intervention did not universally affect employees’ CRS, it notably benefited those with a higher initial CRS. Specifically, IT and long-term care employees with elevated baseline scores saw their CRS decrease by the equivalent of 5.5 and 10.3 years of age-related changes, respectively. Age also played a critical role, with employees over 45 with a higher baseline CRS more likely to experience reductions.

Orfeu Buxton, professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State and co-lead author of the study, explained that the intervention aimed to gradually transform the workplace culture to diminish the conflict between professional and personal life and thereby enhance employee health. The positive outcomes observed underscore the potential for such initiatives to be adopted more widely to improve workplace health conditions.

More information: Lisa F. Berkman et al, Employee Cardiometabolic Risk Following a Cluster-Randomized Workplace Intervention From the Work, Family and Health Network, 2009–2013, American Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2023.307413

Journal information: American Journal of Public Health Provided by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health