An Analysis of Health Factors Affecting Employees’ Absenteeism: Influences of HDL Cholesterol and Blood Sugar Levels

Background: Workers’ health condition is an important issue. It affects not only the well-being of workers but also the firms and society as a whole through medical costs and productivity losses due to absenteeism and presenteeism. Data and Methods: Data were obtained from 1136 employees at an operational site of a large corporation. The dataset contained both medical checkups and working record information. Health factors affecting long-term absence (over three days in three months) were analyzed. Logistic regression models and the procedure for selecting proper covariates based on likelihood test statistics and the Akaike information criterion were used. Results: Among health factors, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and blood sugar levels were important in the selected model. For HDL-C, the odds ratio (OR) based on one standard deviation difference was 0.75 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.59 - 0.95. For blood sugar, the OR was 1.20 with a 95% CI of 1.01 - 1.42. Improving HDL-C and blood sugar levels would reduce long-term absence by 25% and 20%, respectively. Conclusion: Controlling HDL-C and blood sugar levels is important to reduce long-term absenteeism. These factors can be improved by modifying eating habits. Since the operational site has its own company cafeterias, which most employees use, nutritional intervention is relatively easy with little or no cost. It may be worthwhile to implement nutritional intervention, especially for patients with low HDL-C or high blood sugar levels. Limitations: The results of this study were based on one operational site of a corporation. The employees were mainly operators working inside the building. The results may be different from other types of jobs and working conditions, such as fieldwork. Analyses of different types of jobs and working conditions are necessary.

Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Hyperlipidemia:A Network Meta-Analysis

Objective To compare and rank the clinical effects of different acupuncture and related therapies on hyperlipidemia patients.Methods We used network meta-analysis(NMA)to evaluate direct and indirect effects in studies of acupuncture and related therapies for hyperlipidemia.Databases PubMed,EMBASE,Cochrane Library,the China Biology Medicine(CBM),the China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),Wanfang Data and the Chinese Scientific Journal Database(VIP)were searched to collect randomized controlled trials(RCTs)of acupuncture and related therapies in the treatment of hyperlipidemia.The data were analyzed using Stata 15.0 and WinBUGS 1.4.3 software after two researchers independently screened the literature,extracted the data,and assessed the risk of bias in the included studies.Results We analyzed a total of 36 eligible studies that included 3124 patients,involving 12 types of acupuncture and related therapies and comprehensive therapies.The results of the NMA showed that:for the total cholesterol(TC),acupoint catgut embedding(ACE),simple acupuncture(ACU),acupoint injection(AI),electroacupuncture(EA),western medicine of statins(WM),and combination of acupuncture and related therapies(combined therapies)were all more effective than placebo(P<0.05).For triacylglycerol(TG),ACU,EA,warming acupuncture(WA),WM and combined therapies were better than placebo(P<0.05),while WA was better than Chinese herb(CH)(P<0.05).For low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C),combined therapies were more effective than lifestyle modification(LM)(P<0.05).For high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C),auricular acupoint stimulation(AAS),ACE,ACU,AI,CH,EA,LM,moxibustion(MOX),WM,combined therapies and placebo were all worse than WA(P<0.05),while WM and combined therapies were better than ACU(P<0.05).Combined ranking results suggest that ACU and combined therapies may be the optimal intervention.Conclusions The efficacy of all kinds of acupuncture-related therapies in patients with hyperlipidemia is better than lifestyle changes.However,for different outcome indicators,all kinds of acupuncture-related therapies have their advantages and disadvantages,and comprehensive ranking results suggest that ACU and combined therapies may be the optimal intervention.