Use of Well-Being in Identification of Members With Future Health Risk Factors and Future Diagnosed Chronic Disease.

Abstract

To evaluate if well-being is associated with the development of future health risks or incidence of new chronic disease. A retrospective cohort study was employed using longitudinal well-being assessment survey data from participants of a Fortune 500 US company wellness program, claims based International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision diagnoses, and Cox proportional hazards models to assess associations between well-being and well-being change with future health risk and chronic disease incidence. Individuals who maintained high well-being and those who increased their level of well-being displayed a significantly decreased hazard of accruing new health risk and new chronic disease incidence; those whose well-being worsened over time showed significant increases in health risk and hazard of new chronic disease incidence. Well-being levels and change over time are significantly associated with future development of health risk and disease incidence.