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Prevalence and development of workplace health promotion in Germany: results of the IAB Establishment Panel 2012

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Abstract

Purpose

Based on survey data from the IAB Establishment Panel, the investigation aims to examine the prevalence of workplace health promotion among German establishments and its determinants.

Methods

The IAB Establishment Panel 2012 comprises interviews with 15,556 establishments of all sizes and industrial sectors in Germany. We first present some descriptive statistics and then analyse the determinants of the prevalence of workplace health promotion by means of a probit regression.

Results

In 2012, 27 % of the interviewed establishments reported providing workplace health promotion measures on a voluntary basis. 64 % of all employees do work in establishments with workplace health promotion. From 2002 to 2012, the share of establishments with workplace health promotion increased by 8 % points. The strongest increase was observed in establishments in Western Germany and establishments with work councils. Most popular among the measures of workplace health promotion are employee surveys and analysis of the sickness absence. The vast majority of establishments provide only single measures. The econometric analysis shows that industrial sector, size of establishment, expected problems with human resources and the existence of a work council are important factors for workplace health promotion.

Conclusions

Only a minority of establishments are committed to workplace health promotion, while these establishments provide the majority of jobs in Germany. Our analysis displays considerable disparities in terms of prevalence as well as potential for further extensions. This could be taken more into account when discussing innovative approaches of workplace health promotion.

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Notes

  1. Further details regarding the samples, weighting and methods of questioning of the Establishment Panel are described in detail by (Ellguth et al. 2013) and IAB (2014).

  2. Please note: All empirical results reported in this article are weighted and representative for Germany.

  3. According to the German Work Council Constitution Act an establishment must comprise of a minimum of five employees to establish a work council.

  4. The original question: “What kind of problems with human resources management do you expect for your establishment/office during the next 2 years? Please tick where applicable in the list!”.

  5. Checking the role of human resource problems in more detail, we find that with the exception of “high staff turnover “and “lack of motivation in the workplace “all other problems mentioned in Fig. 3 have a significant impact on the prevalence of workplace health promotion.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Head of Section Quality of Health Care, Health Economics, Health System Analysis (GE 6), Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (LGL), Schweinauer Hauptstraße 80, 90441, Nuremberg, Germany

    Alfons Hollederer

  2. Faculty for Social Work, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Kapuzinergasse 2, 85072, Eichstaett, Germany

    Frank Wießner

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  1. Alfons Hollederer
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  2. Frank Wießner
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Correspondence to Alfons Hollederer.

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Hollederer, A., Wießner, F. Prevalence and development of workplace health promotion in Germany: results of the IAB Establishment Panel 2012. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 88, 861–873 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-1012-z

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