Assessing recent developments and opportunities in the promotion of health in the American workplace

The purpose of this paper is to offer, as a basis for discussion, a review of the two main interpretations of what constitutes the meaning and scope of health promotion in the workplace. The two interpretations analyzed are: (a) the individual-based lifestyle approach and (b) the environmental-social approach. This paper discusses the limitations of the individual-based lifestyle approach which postulates an individualistic and fragmentated vision of the process of health in the workplace. In contrast, the environmental-social approach provides a more comprehensive framework of reference in which the socioeconomic, environmental and political components are integrated in the primary prevention strategies of health promotion in the workplace. Under this health alternative it is crucial that workers or their representatives be included as full participants in the overall process of planning, organization and implementation of promotion of health in the workplace.