Businesses must do their part to support employees' mental and physical health. (GETTY STOCK)
By Cesar Carvalho, U.S. News & World Report, June 23, 2023
The workforce is facing a well-being crisis. Absences due to illness have seen some all-time highs recently, due in part to continued health effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But workers’ health and wellness were already suffering long before the pandemic. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that deaths among people of prime working age – that is, ages 25 to 64 – have been steadily on the rise since the 1990s. Worse still, relative to their counterparts in other wealthy nations, more Americans die before reaching age 65, according to the academies’ 2021 report.
This was primarily a result of drug overdoses, alcohol, suicides “and cardiometabolic conditions,” including diabetes, heart diseases caused by high blood pressure and more. They called for “urgent policy actions in light of this crisis,” including anti-obesity efforts and mental health services.
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