Partners Launch Well-Being Tracker

In the US, Gallup and healthcare support provider Healthways have forged a 25-year agreement to measure and track the well-being of communities and companies, as well as the effectiveness of programs implemented to improve health, well-being and productivity.

The new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index has been launched to help leaders across government and businesses collaboratively address the health, wellness and prevention needs of the population. Data will be collected from 1,000 daily surveys with research and methodology based on the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health as 'not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being'.

Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton describes the new index as the 'Dow Jones of health'. 'The index will enable us to determine the correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live and how it impacts their well-being. With that information, we can then begin to better understand how those factors impact the financial health of corporations and communities.'

Under the agreement, Gallup will evaluate and report on the well-being of countries, states, and communities, while Healthways will perform similar services for companies, families and individuals.

Elements of Gallup's World Poll - a 100-year project to annually measure the emotional, physical and financial well-being of citizens in more than 130 countries - will also be included.

Targeted questions will specifically measure:

• Access to and affordability of basic needs such as healthcare, food, shelter and personal safety
• Individual perceptions of physical, mental and emotional health and access to resources to improve them
• Job satisfaction, individual productivity and financial security
• Strength of social network
• Standard of living.

Detailed results from the first 100,000 surveys will be released on April 29. Thereafter, the index will be made available daily online and through other outlets in the US, and is expected to be extended globally over the next decade.

'Employers will now be able to measure the well-being of their workforce and families anywhere in the world,' said Healthways President and CEO Ben Leedle. 'We envision that the new index will be an important, if not a leading factor in a company's decisions about health benefits, work environment and corporate culture, as well as providing a new, critical data point about site selection for a new plant or facility.'

Web sites are at www.gallup.com and www.healthways.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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