Drug Education and Intervention in the Workplace

Health risk evaluation programs must be carried out on a one-on-one basis by trained health care professionals. Health risk measures must include the following:

• Blood Pressure (BP) measurements – at least two Blood Pressure (BP) measurements taken during the assessment episode, using a mercury sphygmomanometers or regularly calibrated aneroids.
• Blood Pressure treatment status – determine whether the colleague is under a doctor’s care, on any medication, on a prescribed diet, or any other sort of treatment for hypertension.
• Blood cholesterol measurement – total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol taken either using a properly tested and maintained table top blood analyzer providing immediate feedback to the client, or sending blood to a laboratory providing feedback using a method that is as effective as immediate feedback.
• Cholesterol treatment status – determine whether the client is under a doctor’s care, on any medication, on a prescribed diet, or any other sort of treatment for high cholesterol.
• Obesity – utilize an accepted method for estimating obesity. For example assess participants height and weight and use the 1959 Metropolitan Life Height/Weight charts or use Body Mass Index.
   o Identify people 20% or more above their ideal weight.
• Smoking status – evaluate whether the colleague currently smokes cigarettes, whether the client has quit or never used tobacco, and the number of cigarettes used tobacco/day.
• Exercise habits – assessment questions may be limited to frequency and duration exercise. Do participants exercise in a moderately vigorous fashion at least three times per week for 30 minutes or more.
• Diabetes – whether the client has diabetes, and whether or not it is currently under control. A blood glucose may be also done via finger stick and desk top analyzer. Several manufactures make available cassettes which include blood lipid and glucose measurements.
• Cerebrovascular disease or occlusive PVD – ascertain if the client has had a stroke or other kind of blood vessel disease.
• Family history of cardiovascular disease – determine whether any of the participants’ parents or siblings had a heart attack or sudden death due to heart disease before age 55.
• Coronary heart disease – determine if the client has had a heart attack or other sort of coronary heart disease.
• Stress – colleague’s assessment of stress in work and/or personal life. A series of well-tested and validated questions assessing levels of stress are available from the Worker Health Program.
• Participant release form (see forms) – A release form is necessitated in which the participant authorizes the program to draw blood for testing to send information to the participant’s medical care provider if medical care risks are identified, and to get information from the provider about diagnosis and prescribed treatment.
• Participant interest survey – if an assessment of interest has not been gathered previously, the assessment exercise must assess levels of interest in programs such as: weight control, tobacco cessation, fitness or exercise, stress management, diet, self-care, blood lipid control.
• Health education messages – the screener must review with the colleague his/her identified health risks and what they mean to the colleague’s overriding health, and give the colleague a written record of the Blood Pressure, total cholesterol, and any other physiological measures taken.
• Referral of participants for treatment – participants with elevated risks must be referred to appropriate sources of diagnosis and possible treatment following nationally or locally recognized guidelines for such referral.

Demographic information should include location of the evaluation, worksite, client’s name, address, social security number, work and home phone number, sex, race, birthdate, relevant job information (e.g., hourly or salaried), department number, and work shift.