Wellness in the work place: potentials and pitfalls of work-site health promotion.
PubMedPublished 1 January 1987
Peter Conrad
Citations84
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Abstract
In the past decade work-site health promotion programs have been developed by many American corporations. Although the potential for these programs to improve worker health and productivity is appealing, there is yet only limited data on their effectiveness or their pitfalls. Evaluation of the benefits of work-site health promotion must consider the sociopolitical context as well as cost-containment outcomes.
Keywords
Health Professions
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