As corporations look to curb those staggering health care rates, wellness and disease management programs are being pushed more than ever. These programs are intended to address the “20% of the population responsible for 80% of the healthcare costs” – also known as the overweight/obese, smoking, and physically inactive bunch. And yes, wellness programs and disease management programs certainly educate the employee population on healthy lifestyle behaviors, and motivate employees to get healthy with great incentives and fun programs. But where many of these programs fall short is in failing to adequately address the root ‘behavioral’ cause of these physical issues.
As reported in this month’s Employee Benefit Adviser, a recent study in Managed Care found that the cost of treatment for common chronic medical conditions increased 300-500% for people who have co-morbid depression. Co-morbid depression refers to depression that occurs in the presence of a physical illness, usually of a chronic nature. People who have conditions that produce a lot of pain, restriction of activity or a poor outlook are all prone to developing depression on top of their existing illness. Studies have shown that if this depression is recognized and treated the outlook for the physical illness is greatly improved.
Co-morbid depression is just one of many behavioral issues that impact physical health. Others include anxiety, stress, substance abuse, and eating disorders. A commonly overlooked eating disorder that seriously impacts obesity is Binge Eating Disorder (BED) – also called compulsive overeating, where individuals rapidly overeat, consuming upwards of 10,000 to 20,000 calories in just one sitting. Since these individuals clearly have underlying emotional and psychological issues that contribute to their weight, a wellness program that gives advice for how to eat healthy and exercise more is simply not going to cut it.
To truly tackle obesity, a wellness program needs to be able to adequately detect and provide treatment options for BED – especially since 10-15% of mildly obese people have BED, and 25% of extremely obese people suffer from BED (according to HealthMedia). HealthMedia also estimates that this disorder accounts for $33 billion in medical costs and lost productivity.
As the link between BED and obesity illustrates, mental, emotional and physical health are all inter-connected. The sooner employers realize this concept, the sooner they can truly impact those health care costs and attain long-term wellness success. The most successful wellness solutions are those that integrate behavioral and physical health in one – with experts from both ends of the spectrum working together to help employees and their family members live healthier lifestyles inside and out.
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