# Longitudinal Study of Total Worker Health in Small Enterprises

> **NIH ALLCDC K01** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2021 · $105,523

## Abstract

Project Summary
I am a trained professional in workplace health protection with specific expertise in safety leadership, safety
climate and workers' compensation. My overall career goal is to expand my knowledge and skills on how
organizational-level factors affect safety and health outcomes in small businesses across a range of industry
sectors, with particular emphasis in the design and evaluation of interventions that enhance Total Worker
HealthTM (TWH). My career development/training plans include training and education, mentoring, and
research activities. Through these plans, I aim to become an expert in TWH systems (policies and programs)
and how the TWH leadership practices of management, workers, and safety/health managers contribute to
system development and effectiveness. My mentors, Dr. Lee Newman a Professor and Center Director of a
NIOSH funded TWH Center of Excellence and Dr. Anna Baron a Professor of Biostatistics and Informatics, as
well as my collaborator, Dr. Stefanie Johnson an Associate Professor of Management, will provide me with
strong mentorship throughout this project. The central hypothesis of my research project is that small
businesses adoption of TWH programs and policies and a positive change in organizational climates for safety
and health will result in improvements in worker outcomes. My research project aims to (SA1) determine the
predictive relationship between organizational level TWH systems, safety and health climates, and worker level
health outcomes and (SA2) understand how small business leadership practices affect TWH system
effectiveness. The employees participating in this project work for small businesses (<500 employees) that are
prospective, serially enrolled Colorado businesses in the Small+Safe+Well research study that is part of the
Center for Health Work & Environment's TWH Center of Excellence. I will use prospective, organizational- and
employee-level data collected annually over a 24-month period to address SA1. I will complement SA1 with a
qualitative investigation of how TWH leadership practices of management, workers, and safety/human
resource managers influence TWH system effectiveness. The output of this career development project will be
a greater understanding of the theoretical framework behind TWH and guidance on the mechanism by which
organizational support for TWH programing impacts worker outcomes. Through this project, I will address
several National TWH Agenda strategic goals: Activity/Output Goal 1.1.3, Activity/Output Goal 1.1.4,
Activity/Output Goal 1.2.4, and Activity/Output Goal 3.1.3.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10215230
- **Project number:** 5K01OH011726-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Natalie Virginia Schwatka
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $105,523
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10215230

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10215230, Longitudinal Study of Total Worker Health in Small Enterprises (5K01OH011726-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10215230. Licensed CC0.

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