by Brianna Crandall — April 18, 2014—A new topic page on healthy aging may prove useful to facilities planners, operators and safety professionals alike. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently released a Workplace Safety and Health Topics page that offers a worker-focused perspective on health and safety and chronic disease issues related to aging. This is one of the first NIOSH topic pages to co-align with the existing Total Worker Health Web page and program.
According to NIOSH, employers increasingly see the value that older workers bring to the job, including greater institutional knowledge and wealth of experience, productive work habits, lower stress, and higher likelihood of getting along with their colleagues. Older workers also tend to be more cautious on the job and more likely to follow safety rules and regulations. As older workers experience chronic conditions, their health and safety on the job is jeopardized.
The new topic page, titled Healthy Aging at Work, along with its associated subpages, features a compilation of recommendations for healthy aging in the workplace as well as NIOSH research on the subject. Future planned updates include expanding on research needs as well as information specific to health risks such as hearing loss and musculoskeletal disorders. The page also features simple strategies and workplace solutions for an age-friendly workplace.
As part of the Total Worker Health Program, Healthy Aging at Work acknowledges that both work-related factors and health factors beyond the workplace jointly contribute to many health and safety problems that confront today’s workers and their families. Total Worker Health is a strategy integrating health protection with health promotion to prevent worker injury and illness and to enhance well-being, including that of older workers.
Some of the facilities-related strategies suggested on the site are:
- Avoid prolonged, sedentary work: Prolonged sedentary work is bad for workers at every age. Consider sit/stand workstations and walking workstations for workers who traditionally sit all day. Provide on-site physical activity opportunities or connections to low-cost community options.
- Prioritize workplace flexibility: Workers prefer jobs that offer more flexibility over those that offer more vacation days. To the extent possible, give workers a say in their schedule, work conditions, work organization, work location and work tasks.
- Manage hazards: These include noise, slip/trip hazards, and physical hazards—conditions that can challenge an aging workforce more.
- Provide and design ergo-friendly work environments: Workstations, tools, floor surfaces, adjustable seating, better illumination where needed, and screens and surfaces with less glare can all help older workers.
