Workplace primary prevention programmes enabled by information and communication technology Fatemeh Nikayin a, ⁎, Marikka Heikkilä b , Mark de Reuver a , Sam Solaimani c a Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5015, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands b Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, FI-20014, Finland c Centre of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Nyenrode Business University, The Netherlands article info abstract Article history: Received 1 August 2014 Accepted 1 August 2014 Available online xxxx As the workforce is ageing across the globe, employers are implementing primary prevention programmes to encourage their employees to live healthier lives. Information and communication technology (ICT) can support these programmes by collecting, storing and processing data, and by visualizing health progress. However, there is a lack of knowledge of how ICT is utilized in primary prevention programmes at workplaces and how its utilization affects social issues. This paper fills that gap by presenting an illustrative case of a primary prevention programme in Finland. We find that offering employees the opportunity to use ICT for data collection, storage and sharing, contributes to their acceptance of the programme. Moreover, our findings show that while visualizing the effects of the programme through ICT contributes to lifestyle change, such soft factors as the involvement of doctors are just as important. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Workplace primary prevention e-Health Wellness programmes 1. Introduction An increasing share of the workforce is over 60 as retirement ages are increasing in many countries (Burtless, 2013). People in their 60s and 70s are increasingly capable of working because physically intensive jobs are increasingly being replaced by knowledge-intensive jobs (Christensen et al., 2009). Older workers are not necessarily less innovative than younger workers, as shown by a recent study (Ng and Feldman, 2013). Keeping older employers healthy is thus an increasing concern for employers, not only to increase productivity but also to reduce health-related costs (Baicker et al., 2010; Perez et al., 2009; Weldon, 2011). Organizations increasingly recognize the importance of wellbeing in the workplace (Ylikoski et al., 2009) and the impact of health on productivity (van Scheppingen et al., 2012). Employee health is particularly important for knowledge-intensive organizations, as health affects mental functioning and creativity (Leka and Jain, 2014; Zwetsloot and Van Scheppingen, 2007). People's lifestyles have a strong effect on their health conditions (Blumel and Scheller-Kreinsen, 2010). Lifestyles can be improved by adopting healthier eating and drinking patterns, increasing physical activity and exercise levels, and stopping smoking (Christensen et al., 2009). Primary preven- tion programmes that stimulate both physical activity and diet improvements reduce absenteeism rates and increase job satisfaction (Goldgruber and Ahrens, 2010). A suggested method to encourage people to exercise more is to prescribe physical activity as a treatment (Aittasalo et al., 2006; Leijon et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2000; Swinburn et al., 1999). In order to be effective, however, their progress needs to be monitored (Aittasalo et al., 2006). ICT can be an important enabler for primary prevention programmes in the workplace. It can be used to (1) collect lifestyle and health-related data through sensors and online Technological Forecasting & Social Change xxx (2014) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 15 278 35 99. E-mail addresses: f.a.nikayin@tudelft.nl (F. Nikayin), marikka.heikkila@utu.fi (M. Heikkilä), g.a.dereuver@tudelft.nl (M. de Reuver), s.solaimani@nyenrode.nl (S. Solaimani). TFS-18061; No of Pages 7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.08.003 0040-1625/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Technological Forecasting & Social Change Please cite this article as: Nikayin, F., et al., Workplace primary prevention programmes enabled by information and communication technology, Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.08.003