Workplace Organizational Health Study

August 1, 2016 – July 31, 2021

In collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and with funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, our Center partnered with a large food service company to develop and test policies, programs, and practices to improve the health, safety, and well-being of food service workers in corporate environments. Researchers sought to identify working conditions that can be modified to potentially improve study outcomes.

The team jointly developed an integrated intervention based on changes to policies and practices. A randomized controlled trial then tested the feasibility and efficacy of an integrated intervention. This collaboration provided us with a unique opportunity to directly measure the impact of an integrated approach and to provide recommendations on evidence-based programs, policies, and practices to improve food service worker health, safety, and well-being.

For more information:
Sorensen G, Peters S, Nielsen K, Nagler E, Karapanos M, Wallace L, Burke L, Dennerlein J, Wagner G. Improving Working Conditions to Promote Worker Safety, Health, and Wellbeing for Low-Wage Workers: The Workplace Organizational Health Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(8), 1449. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16081449

Peters SE, Nielsen KM, Nagler EM, Revette AC, Madden J, Sorensen G. Ensuring organization-intervention fit for a participatory organizational intervention to improve food service workers’ health and wellbeing: Workplace Organizational Health Study. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 62(2):e33-e45, February 2020.