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The CDC Foundation's Business Pulse reports that “high blood pressure is one of the 10 most expensive health conditions for U.S. employers. About 75 million U.S. adults have high blood pressure, a major contributor to heart disease and stroke.”

With such an impact on American business, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) offers an excellent rundown on the various ways that workplace wellness program design can help employees manage blood pressure concerns. Some tips include:

• Information from employee health surveys can be used to identify the percent of employees that have received blood pressure screening. Survey information can be used not only in obtaining baseline group data on employee health but also to educate individual employees to their needs for counseling and follow-up for specific health concerns
• Other surveys can be used as planning guides to assess if a worksite has provided services, programs, policies, and environmental interventions to support healthy lifestyles and prevent risk factors such as high blood pressure

Specifically, the CDC states, “worksite blood pressure screening, health education, and lifestyle counseling can identify employees with high blood pressure and help them control it:”

• Periodic blood pressure screening and health risk assessment programs at the worksite through occupational health clinics, health fairs, and other activities can provide blood pressure information to employees. Employees who have elevated values should get therapeutic lifestyle counseling and be referred to clinical care for follow-up. Health care professionals or human resources staff can provide information about the benefits and availability of screening to encourage and motivate employees to be screened
• One-on-one education and lifestyle counseling with clinical referral and follow-up should be provided for employees who were determined to have high blood pressure or pre-hypertension. A lifestyle management program is an ongoing series of services designed to teach and counsel participants on how to make healthy choices, such as exercise, diet, and tobacco cessation
• Lifestyle counseling, either provided at the worksite or covered through employee health insurance plans, can be provided by health care or allied health professionals (i.e., health educators) or by lay health advisors or volunteers, This type of counseling provides employees with information by telephone or face-to-face in an office or clinic settings or at a workplace
• Seminars, educational workshops, or classes (including online, telephone conference or self study guide) on preventing and controlling high blood pressure can be provided