• Comprehensive scientific reviews identified 378 peer-reviewed research studies showing that Corporate Health Promotion Programs improve health knowledge, health behaviors and underlying health conditions.
  
  
  
• Studies have demonstrated that lifestyle modification may often be more effective and cost-effective than health intervention in lowering morbidity and mortality.
  
  
  
• Rising health costs for U.S. companies continue to outpace general inflation, averaging 12 percent per year for the past 10 years. This trend is causing a tremendous financial hardship on U.S companies.

• Unhealthy lifestyles is the primary contributor to the six leading causes of death in the U.S. - Heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory disease, accidents and diabetes - which collectively account for over 70 percent of all deaths.
  
  
  
• People with healthier lifestyles live an average of 6 to 9 years longer, postpone disability by 9 years and compress disability into fewer years at the end of life.
  
  
  
• The prevalence of diabetes among African Americans is about 70 percent higher than among white Americans; the prevalence among Hispanic is nearly double than for white Americans.

• Women comprise more than half of the people who die annually of cardiovascular disease

Adapted from The Health Promotion First Act prepared by David Anderson, Ph.D., StayWell Health Management