TIP OF THE WEEK

April 3, 2009

Did you know...?

Diabetes is a chronic disease with a big impact on American businesses

Consider the statistics: Nearly 8% of Americans, or 24 million people, have been diagnosed with diabetes. Additionally, an astounding 57 million more people have blood sugar levels high enough to be considered pre-diabetic.

Making the Business Case for Diabetes Education in the Workplace

Diabetes is on the rise in epidemic proportions.

Each day, more than 2,200 people are diagnosed with diabetes.
The average age of onset of type 2 diabetes is 51 years old, but an increasing number of younger people are being diagnosed.
Adults with diabetes die of heart disease 2 to 4 times more than people without diabetes.
The risk for stroke is 2 to 4 times higher among people with diabetes.
Diabetes can cause a number of life-threatening complications, including blindness, kidney disease, nerve disease, and circulation disease leading to amputations.

Diabetes does affect corporate America and its bottom line.

In 2007, direct and indirect costs of diabetes reached nearly $174 billion a year.
People with diagnosed diabetes, on average have medical expenditures that are 2.3 times higher than what the expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.
In 2007, indirect costs included increased absenteeism ($2.6 billion) and reduced productivity while at work ($20.0 billion) for the employed population, reduced productivity for those not in the labor force ($0.8 billion), unemployment from disease- related disability ($7.9 billion) and lost productive capacity due to early mortality ($26.9 billion).
Diabetes accounts for 15 million work days absent, 120 million work days with reduced performance, 107 million work days lost due to unemployment disability attributed to diabetes.
People with diabetes have health a related absenteeism rate that is 0.8% higher than people without diabetes.

Corporate America can help employees manage their diabetes or reduce their risks of developing it.

With employees spending more than one-third of their days on the job, employers are in a unique position to address this health issue.
Current data from the American Diabetes Association show that people with diabetes who control their disease by keeping their blood sugar down cost employers only $24 a month, compared with the $115 a month for people with diabetes who do not control their blood sugar.

Diabetes prevention is proven, possible, and powerful.

While diabetes cannot be cured, it can be managed to lessen the devastating impact. The expectation: as more employees comply with diabetes management, long-term, expensive complications from chronic illnesses like diabetes are avoided, lowering health care costs and improving clinical outcomes.
Studies show that people at high risk for type 2 diabetes can prevent or delay the onset of the disease by losing 5 to 7 percent of their body weight, by eating healthier and getting 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week. The key is: small steps that lead to big rewards.

Diabetes management programs can raise awareness of the dangers of diabetes and the importance of controlling blood sugar so that complications don’t arise. Programs stress the importance of regular blood sugar testing, routine follow-up, and screening for complications. They also provide valuable educational materials on the importance of diet and exercise and other elements of a healthy lifestyle, such as not smoking and drinking only in moderation. To reinforce these messages, a number of programs offer the option of one-on-one counseling with qualified health care professionals, such as certified nurse diabetes educators. Overall, diabetes management programs provide an integrated approach to managing prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diabetes in a particular setting—the workplace—for a particular segment of the population.

For information about preventive health programs or to set up cholesterol or glucose screenings for employees at your facility through our sister company Adult Quick Care please contact our Client Services Team at 816-559-6320 or by email at ClientServices@adultquickcare.com.

For more information about diabetes visit the following web sites: American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org/; Diabetes at Work http://diabetesatwork.org/; or the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality http://www.ahrq.gov/populations/diabcostcalc/dbcalcinst.htm.

*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*

To view the Tip of the Week in Spanish please visit our Tip of the Week library at http://www.ohscompcare.com/totw/. Please allow a few days for the current Tip of the Week to be translated and placed in to the library.

To learn more about services OHS-COMPCARE has to offer, contact our Client Services Team at (816) 561-2105 option 1 or by e-mail at customerservice@ohscompcare.com. You can also visit us at www.ohscompcare.com.

Why choose us? Because OHS-COMPCARE delivers excellent Customer Service. Patient satisfaction rate exceeds 98%.

OHS-COMPCARE has seven (7) area clinical facilities:

Independence Clinical Facility	Johnson County Clinical Facility	St. Joseph Clinical Facility	Grandview Clinical Facility
19000 E. Eastland Center Crt, St. 200	10415 Lackman Road	904 Edmond Street	13830 S Us Highway 71
Independence, MO 64055	Lenexa, KS 66219	St. Joseph, MO 64501	Grandview, MO 64030
816-478-9299	913-495-9905	816-233-7702	816-761-4664
After Hours Available

KCMO/Broadway Clinical Facility	KCMO/Front Street Clinical Facility	Wyandotte County Clinical Facility
1650 Broadway	6501 East Commerce, Suite 110	1333 Meadowlark Lane, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64108	Kansas City, MO 64120	Kansas City, KS 66102
816-842-2020	816-483-5550	913-596-2774