The benefit to cost ratio of work-site blood pressure control programs
A. Foote and J. C. Erfurt
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-2054.
Reduction in the cost of health care claims among hypertensive employees
was examined over a 4-year period after exposure to a 3-year blood pressure
control program, to see whether work-site monitoring and counseling
produced a subsequent benefit. Hypertensive employees at three experimental
sites (N = 183 to 367 subjects) were compared with subjects at a control
site (N = 169) who had received no postscreening follow-up or monitoring,
and with matched normotensive employees. The cost of subsequent health care
claims for hypertensive employees at the experimental sites was lower than
claims for those at the control site, but there was no significant
difference across the sites in claims for normotensive employees. After
adjusting to a standard 1982 dollar, the data showed from $1.89 to $2.72 in
reduced health care claims per dollar spent operating the hypertension
control program.
