SOLANA BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Negative emotional health and social isolation are proven predictors of poor health outcomes and mortality in the United States. Numerous studies indicate that people and caretakers with poor social connections have an increased risk for heart attack, stroke, cancer, depression and death compared to those with the support of friends, family and community.
Through its award-winning Social Solutioning® platform, designed to improve members’ social connections and emotional state to achieve positive health outcomes, OneHealth® Solutions, Inc. completed a study of members participating in a series of platform challenges to evaluate OneHealth’s impact on emotional health and positive behavior change.
The study entailed detailed analysis of a random population of more than 400 members opting to participate in a series of challenges designed to evaluate emotional health status. OneHealth’s challenges, focusing on topics such as stress management, nutrition and gratitude, help engage and activate members to participate in daily activities to create healthy habits that lead to positive changes in emotional state.
Using the company’s patent-pending Emotional Risk Assessment (ERA) tool, which identifies the emotional state of members at a specific point in time, members participating in challenge activities were asked to self-identify emotional state at specific times throughout the challenge to generate data for analysis purposes. OneHealth’s ERA tool, with greater than 92% utilization by routine users of the platform, allows the member’s network and peer community to immediately respond and support the individual’s health needs, leading to better results.
The results were significant for demonstrating that participation in a challenge and engaging with peers resulted in improved emotional state:
- The challenge cohort was 18% less likely to self-identify an at-risk emoticon during the challenge.
- The challenge cohort was 9% less likely to self-identify as at-risk in the period immediately following the challenge.
- Non-challenge participants had no change in recording risk emoticons during the challenge period.
- Non-challenge participants were 4% more likely to record a risk emoticon in the period immediately following the challenge period.
- In the stress and gratitude challenge cohorts, there was a greater than 50% reduction in at-risk emoticons.
In addition, members who participated in the OneHealth challenge study are also shown to make deep social connections with others members with similar health conditions at a rate 49% greater than the non-challenge cohort. The vast majority of members who self-reported a negative emotional risk assessment received a rapid response from social connections in less than an hour on average.
“We are very encouraged by the demonstration that the extent to which emotional health and social connectedness is supported is a key predictor of elevated emotional status, which is so critical to health outcomes,” said Bruce Springer, CEO of OneHealth. “We are finding that addressing negative emotional health and social isolation immediately following treatment helps improve medication and care plan adherence, which lowers the risk of complications and ultimately drives better outcomes and lowers costs. At OneHealth, we call it the happiness index and we measure it every day.”
Selected by leading health systems, treatment centers, employers and health plans for its ability to positively impact individuals’ emotional state, the OneHealth platform provides a safe, social environment that allows members to exchange information in a private, non-judgmental setting. The platform encourages the creation of trusted relationships between members and with OneHealth coaches and staff to get support from similarly motivated users sharing the same experience.
With 37 active OneHealth condition communities and 47 private client communities allowing for custom content and services, OneHealth takes a holistic approach to creating sustainable behavior change which starts with a member’s emotional and social state. Members in the OneHealth community participate on average in three or more condition communities, highlighting the co-morbid nature of chronic disease. Platform members are geographically represented by all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.
About OneHealth Solutions, Inc.
OneHealth's award-winning, cloud-based service delivers dynamic content, tools and real-time structured peer support to engage members to achieve sustainable behavior change. The patent-pending Social Solutioning® platform integrates physical and mental health management into a mobile and web experience for health plan members, employees and patients. For additional information visit www.onehealth.com or follow the company on Twitter or LinkedIn.
