Business & Public Health

This study “by Megan McHugh, Ph.D. and colleagues at Northwestern University [explores] how 13 of the largest manufacturing companies in the United States approach community health investments. The study also addresses how corporations and local public health leaders can collaborate to measure the impact of investments and ensure that community health initiatives are effective and benefit the community.”

This article by Andrew Webber and Suzanne Mercure discusses the economic effect of poor population health and the role of the business community in population health improvement. The authors argue that businesses “[need] to understand population health and not focus just on the health of employees at the worksite,” and they “describe a long-term approach to population health, including incentives, and identify what is needed to engage business leadership in population health improvement.”

Paul Simon and Jonathan Fielding “[make] the case for the business sector’s participation in the broad public health system and its support of governmental public health agencies. Examples of past and current partnerships exemplify how public health efforts benefit business and suggest opportunities for future collaboration to improve the public’s health.”

“Every day, business owners and real estate developers make decisions that have tremendous impact on our health – where homes are built, where businesses are located, and what kinds of products and services are available. Developed by ChangeLab Solutions, this guide looks at how local government incentives can help improve community health. It explains a variety of different types of incentives that promote access to healthy food and physical activity space, and outlines the steps involved in developing and carrying out these policies and programs.”

The Nation’s Health, a publication of the American Public Health Association, spoke with Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, to learn about what he plans to accomplish in his role. “The theme of [his] tenure will be better health through better partnerships.”

“Although there is growing understanding that fundamental population health improvement will require multisectoral partnerships, the specific role of employers in such partnerships has been less well explored. While corporate social responsibility plays an important motivational role, more traction will be possible if improving health can be linked to corporate bottom-line performance. This paper explores why business should engage in improving population health.”

“This paper is a product of [the partnership between the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center (USCCF) and the Action Collaborative on Business Engagement in Building Healthy Communities], exploring the business motivation for investing in community health, the processes involved in that effort, and the challenges stakeholders faced when pursuing these initiatives.”

This YouTube playlist contains the full videos and highlights from the What CEOs Say series from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. The interviews in the series “focus on CEOs who have successfully executed a Culture of Health, talking about how they actually did so.” For more information: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/leadership-studio/what-ceos-say/.

“Healthy Workplaces Healthy Communities is a national employer-community collaboration focused on better health. This initiative provides business and community leaders with practical tools and strategies for building support and investing in shared priorities. Because health and well-being is more than a nine-to-five proposition.” This website is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.