<p>Tatin, there’s how people look and how healthy they are. Apparently my personal trainer is “obese,” but he looks super-fit to me. Just short and solid, but very muscular.</p>
<p>I work at a library for the blind and physically handicapped. One coworker is blind and occasionally brings in his service dog. Even though we can’t pet while on duty, just having her around makes productivity go up. Plus we all eagerly await pup’s break time so we can get in some petting time. </p>
<p>At another job, my boss’ vicious dog from hell makes us want to punt him out the window.</p>
<p>I do wish dogs were allowed. Seems a more effective stress control strategy than any others I’ve seen.</p>
<p>“I still don’t get it. Unless you work exclusively from home and never see your boss, the company knows whether or not a person is obese.”
Ok, so how does obesity matter if a person doesn’t use the firm’s benefits? Also, isn’t obesity a specific proportion, as opposed to an aesthetic judgment, so obesity might not be that easy to define.</p>
<p>I doubt a personal trainer looks obese. All I’m saying is that there are many medical conditions that are rather obvious and getting on a scale only puts a number on it. </p>
<p>More companies should be proactive in bringing down the costs of health insurance.</p>
<p>But these rules are only if one is on the company plan.</p>
<p>I know people are very sensitive about this. But obesity and the conditions that follow are a huge problem. CVS plan makes more sense than banning large sodas. Some thing has to be done.</p>
<p>That’s what I am saying. He doesn’t LOOK it, but according to the charts apparently he is “medically obese.” And some people who might look obese to you might not be, medically.</p>
<p>But I do agree that obesity is associated with a wide range of health issues.</p>
<p>FWIW The Surgeon General’s report and many other sources recognize tobacco as THE single biggest cause of preventable health conditions.</p>
<p>Bodyfat would be a better measure but it’s hard to calculate efficiently and accurately.</p>
<p>This program by CVS (and many other companies) goes beyond just stepping on a scale to discover (???) one’s obesity, it also involves blood tests and sharing the data. People should rightly be concerned about privacy in this regard (you can’t tell by just looking at someone what their blood tests might reveal) -
I wouldn’t trust CVS to be able to keep data private and I wouldn’t trust the external company WebMD (with ‘Web’ as part of its name - the repository of repeatedly hacked information). I also wouldn’t trust employers to not eventually use that data in a proactively negative way for the employee and as time goes by, glean more and more information from the various tests.</p>
<p>romani: Boxers are great dogs.</p>
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<p>Preventive screening recommendations do not necessarily require an annual doctor’s visit.
[Affordable</a> Care Act: USPSTF A and B Recommendations](<a href=“http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsabrecs.htm]Affordable”>http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsabrecs.htm)</p>
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<p>The difference in early versus late death for smokers versus non-smokers is often during the time of life when the person is on the dole (Social Security) and socialized medical insurance (Medicare), so the gains from dying early go to the government. But the smoker likely has to visit the doctor more often during his/her working years, so that costs employer-sponsored medical insurance more.</p>
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<p>Japan uses waistline measurements.
[Another</a> Thing Big In Japan: Measuring Waistlines - Health Blog - WSJ](<a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/06/13/another-thing-big-in-japan-measuring-waistlines/]Another”>http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/06/13/another-thing-big-in-japan-measuring-waistlines/)
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0</a>
The waistline limits in Japan are 85cm (33.5") for men and 90cm (35.4") for women. Average height in Japan is 172cm for men and 159cm for women, but the waistline limits do not account for variations in height.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ashwell.uk.com/images/2012%20Ashwell%20Gunn%20and%20Gibson%20%20Ob%20Revs.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ashwell.uk.com/images/2012%20Ashwell%20Gunn%20and%20Gibson%20%20Ob%20Revs.pdf</a> , [Waist</a> Less Than Half Of Height Helps You Live Longer](<a href=“http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245352.php]Waist”>Waist Less Than Half Of Height Helps You Live Longer) , and [Waist</a> To Height Ratio Better Than BMI](<a href=“http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245328.php]Waist”>Waist To Height Ratio Better Than BMI) suggest a simple rule of “Keep your waist circumference to less than half of your height.” By this rule, Japan’s waistline standard is significantly stricter for men (0.49) than for women (0.57).</p>
<p>Actually COPD caused 85% of the time by smoking is the 2nd leading cause of disability according to NHLBI. Once a person is disabled they collect disability as required by federal labor law which DOES affect employers who have to pay based on claim history. </p>
<p>Over time smokers call in sick more and have more illness which is a burden on employer and other employees. </p>
<p>I believe heart disease is leading cause of disability and tobacco is a major cause of that as well.</p>
<p>I generally use a calculator that uses waistline, weight and height but I’d like to find a more accurate solution. I have looked for a dunk tank service in my area but couldn’t find one. Back in the 1990s, my office had a vendor for that service - don’t recall whether or not they paid for it.</p>
<p>My observations on smokers is that they need a regular smoke break. The amount of time between breaks varies but it isn’t that long and can be a little disruptive in the work schedule.</p>
<p>Bceagle,</p>
<p>There is a machine called inbody, that can be used to measure your body composition. It’s really easy, almost like weighing in. My big chain gym has it, so if you belong to a gym, ask them. The machine is not new. I believe my trainer have been using it for at least two years to measure body fat.</p>
<p>CVS (and other employers with similar policies) is just taking “corporate wellness” one step further.</p>
<p>For years employers have been incenting their employees to take advantage of wellness activities designed to improve their health - on-site health screenings, gym memberships, etc. For a while they also targeted employees with chronic diseases or bad habits (weight probelms and smoking) to improve those conditions or ditch the bad habits. Often these activities were connected to healthcare benefits - “if you do x, then your healthcare insurance premiums will be lower!”</p>
<p>For years, people with chronic conditions or health risks could still get the lower premium if they just participated in programs designed to lower their risk. Those days are over. Employers want to see REAL risk reduction - lower bp, lower BMI - because there were very little cost savings associated with particiaption-only prorgams. People at low-risk “just” have to maintain their low-risk status.</p>
<p>As ucb alluded to: It could be worse - you could be living /working in Japan:</p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0</a></p>
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<p>True, there is probably no upside to a company to have you quickly drop dead as the company then has to life insurance to worry about as well. </p>
<p>But from a societal stand point I wonder what the cost has been to have people start living into their 90’s regularly? Thats probably 10 years of care and trips in and out of the hospital. </p>
<p>It would be ironic if the government has to start a campaign to get people smoking.</p>
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<p>I’m sure that the three gyms that I belong to don’t have anything like this. I’m going to see if I can find one though. This looks promising. I will put this on the diet and exercise thread. I tried to find out something about the company but wasn’t able to from their website.</p>
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<p>I think that a combination of carrots and sticks could help lead to a healthier country. I also think that getting to 33.5 inch waistlines in the US would be a very tough goal.</p>
<p>BTW, when I was 245 pounds, I didn’t really have any healthcare costs and I really don’t have them now that I am a lot lighter. It is possible that I could have developed chronic problems that would have been expensive to treat though.</p>
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<p>My mother has had a few surgeries in the last twenty years for joint issues and she participates in some long-term study on exercise for seniors but I don’t think that she otherwise has much in the way of medical costs. Of course she was part of a generation that did a lot of physical labor in the jobs that she worked on. She had a back injury on-the-job in her 50s that has caused problems for decades which are more or less compensated for with a chunk of metal in her back.</p>
<p>The science on fitness today is wonderful. She probably could have avoided the injury with an hour of strength-training a week back then but that sort of thing was quite uncommon back then.</p>
<p>I had a look at the chart of BioSpace, the parent company of the Inbody.</p>
<p>It looks like they are headed from Bankruptcy from the look of the chart. They used to be around $40/share. They are now $0.10 cents a share. That’s a big ouch!</p>
<p>I didn’t find any clubs in my area with the machine. I asked our fitness center manager if she knew of one in the area and I’m waiting to hear back from her.</p>