US workers with poor well-being more likely to develop chronic conditions: survey

Chronic conditions have direct ramifications on the nation’s health care spending and productivity.

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech | Oct. 24, 2023

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A new Gallup analysis looks at how well-being is connected to the development of some chronic conditions.

The analysis found that workers with poor well-being are about twice as likely to develop a chronic condition over a three-year period than those with holistic well-being.

Workers with poor well-being are expected to add an extra $2,049 in health care spending a year, according to the analysis.

Worker well-being is linked to chronic conditions, according to a new Gallup analysis.

U.S. workers with poor well-being were about twice as likely to report developing a new chronic condition over a three-year period than their colleagues with holistic well-being, according to the findings.

In the analysis, a person with poor well-being is someone who has high well-being in only one or none of Gallup’s five elements: career, social, financial, physical and community.

Gallup defined a person with intermittent well-being as someone who is thriving in two to four of the elements of well-being. Meanwhile, a person needs to be thriving in all five well-being elements in order to be considered someone with holistic well-being, according to Gallup.

Gallup tracked the well-being of 3,654 workers over 36 months via multiple surveys to come up with the analysis’ findings.

Workers’ well-being classifications were based on their status at the start of the three-year window, according to a statement from Gallup.

Eight disease diagnoses were tracked in the research: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, anxiety, back pain, insomnia and heart attack.

“Even among high well-being individuals, the odds of adding new disease states grow with aging,” Gallup said in the analysis.

“But these chances are elevated among lower well-being individuals, resulting in incremental increases in disease states and costs that would not otherwise be expected if all had holistic well-being.”

Gallup found workers with poor well-being developed 450 new chronic conditions per 1,000 people within three years.

Workers with inconsistent well-being developed 330 new chronic conditions per 1,000 people and workers with holistic well-being developed 230 new chronic conditions per 1,000 people over three years.

Gallup used its analysis findings to determine that nationally 9 percent of working adults have holistic well-being, while 47 percent are inconsistent.

Meanwhile, 44 percent of working adults in the U.S. have poor well-being.

And these additional health conditions come with a price tag.

Gallup estimates that workers with holistic well-being added an average of $1,058 a year in new health care costs due to chronic conditions during the research’s three-year window.

That amount jumps to $1,740 a year for workers with inconsistent well-being and $2,049 for those with poor well-being.

“Projected across the entire full-time U.S. workforce, the elevated amounts for those with lower wellbeing add an estimated $101.5 billion in new annual healthcare costs by the end of the three years than what would be expected if all workers had holistic wellbeing,” Gallup wrote.