Stay OK

Aim
The aim of Stay OK is to develop an innovative measurement method for early detection and treat-ment of psychosocial risks. The project is funded by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI). It is being implemented together with the IT firm  LCC, a subsidiary of Helsana Health Insurance AG. Specifically, we are building a web-based service for employers. Stay OK makes it possible to analyse the health of employees, and it provides individualized evaluations and suggestions for dealing with problems at work and in personal life. 

Research questions
The focus is mainly on the following three points, which demonstrate the innovative content of this research:

• Reliability of the measurement instruments
• Sensitivity of the diagnosis of psychosocial dysfunctions, i.e. can the measurement instruments distinguish between healthy persons and persons with psychosocial burdens?
• Sensitivity to change, i.e. can the measurement instruments register improvements and changes for the worse at repeated measurements?

We expect that the web application Stay OK will produce more precise and more comprehensive data than has been the case with surveys conducted up to now. This is possible because Stay OK generates data on age, phase of life, working life, personality, personal life, finances, and health. Using these data, new correlations and patterns will be pinpointed. We can then study their interplay at the behavioural level and at the level of the organization (the firm).

Finally, we aim to examine what measures and interventions are the best for individuals and homogeneous groups. From this we can then deduce the cost-benefit ratio. For the first time in the area of prevention and health promotion, this will yield information that allows us to evaluate the impact of a measure according to the criteria of effectiveness, appropriateness, and efficiency.