CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEALTH PROMOTION IN THE WORKPLACE

Abstract

Introduction: Health promotion, from an integrated, intersection and interdisciplinary viewpoint, has been slowly developed in the workplace. The promotion of health in workplaces (PSHW) as a strategy is oriented towards contributing to the integrated attention to workers, involving all determining factors to optimize the health and safety conditions in the workplace involving workers, directors and the organization as a whole. Due to the complexity posed by structural processes, such as globalization and its effects on the working processes and life of people at current times, this strategy becomes a challenge to be implemented in several different labor settings. Objectives: To analyze the bibliography and documentary references in relation to health promotion in workplaces. Methodology: By means of a bibliographic revision, in scientific databases and sites related to the field of interest, the conceptual development of health in workplaces will be analyzed. Descriptors used for searching were the following: Promotion of health, work, and work environment. Results: The bibliographic search showed that the promotion of health in the workplace is a potentially integrating strategy, generating policies and actions of the organization leading to the enhancement of working conditions, as well as all other factors implied in workers‟ health status. Conclusions: Organizations nowadays should assure a balance between the compliance with their objectives and the needs of the health of workers, through an efficient PSHW program, with the objective of continuously improving their quality of life, which can be affected by changes in the labor setting as the result of new technologies and the nature of work. The application of strategies is limited, according to the revision made.