Development and validation of a health corporate assessment tool based on lifestyle

• Grant number: 22/10563-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Preventive Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Renata Silvério
• Grantee: Renata Silvério
• Company: Pra Saúde e Aprendizado Ltda. - EPP
• CNAE: Atividades de apoio à gestão de saúde
• City: São Paulo
• Pesquisadores principais: Marcelo Semiatzh ; Paula Ricci Arantes
• Associated researchers: Alfredo Goldman vel Lejbman ; Paulo Roberto dos Santos Silva
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/10041-8 - Monitoring and participation in a study to validate a method for estimating cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy adults., BP.TT; 23/10339-7 - Development of fullstack (backend and frontend), database and hosting for the EqualiMe tool., BP.TT; 23/10854-9 - Management of Implementation and Interaction of an employee health assessment tool based on lifestyle in the corporate environment., BP.TT; 23/10047-6 - Training and operation of machine learning systems for classifying and evaluating data from the Equalime tool., BP.TT; 23/09768-0 - Development and validation of a tool based on lifestyle for assessing the health of employees, BP.PIPE

Abstract

Lifestyle habits such as diet, physical activity, sleep quality and stress are directly related to the propensity to develop chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These habits also have a significant influence on other spheres of life, even impacting the individual's professional performance, which results in higher costs for companies (lower productivity rates, absenteeism, high claims in health plans). Aware of the influence of quality of life on professional performance, many companies promote health care programs in several areas. In this context, offering programs that specifically address employees' needs favors such interventions' success. However, it is clear that, in general, companies do not have a tool to diagnose which area of lifestyle employees have the greatest need for change or are more likely to change. Similarly, most programs offered do not have a metric to assess the general health status of the employee before and after the intervention, which means that the company is often unable to quantify the activity's success objectively. Based on the above, our objective is to develop a tool so that companies can assess the health condition of their employees, in a simple and fast way, through the analysis of their lifestyle. There is no scalable product on the market that can early identify individuals at greater risk of developing NCDs and indicate which area of lifestyle deserves greater attention and which area the individual is more likely to make changes, justifying the development of this research. Based on international guidelines, a questionnaire was developed to assess lifestyle, which analyzes the following areas: general health, nutrition, physical activity, sleep and mental health. The questions that make up all sections of the questionnaire have already been prepared. However, the section referring to physical activity, which determines the risk of developing NCDs based on the value of cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 max), requires prior validation so that the result generated by the questionnaire is reliable. Usually, the determination of VO2max is done through an ergospirometry test, which requires expensive equipment, involves highly trained professionals and is challenging to perform on a large scale. For this reason, the validation of the equation that estimates the VO2 max of individuals will be carried out initially through the performance of ergospirometry tests. In a second moment, the questionnaire will be applied to employees of a private company. A health score will be calculated for each employee, and a risk rating for developing NCDs will be generated by lifestyle area. The health score will be correlated with corporate absenteeism and productivity rates, and it is expected to find a positive correlation between these factors. If the expected results are confirmed, we will have a basis for developing a scalable tool that will enable a quick screening of the health condition and serve as a guide for health policies in the corporate environment. (AU)