Welcome back to the website of the symposium Stress, the Business Traveler and Corporate Health. We have now updated the site with the complete proceedings of the symposium.

A goal of the Symposium was to stimulate discussion and exchange of ideas within and across organizations about the psychosocial health risks of frequent business travel, the business case for paying attention to this, and best practices for reducing the health risks and increasing work effectiveness. Speakers presented the latest research in travel stress, jet lag and physical health risks for travelers, as well as research standards and trends, and current occupational and travel medicine services for business travelers.

The participants at the travel symposium were a multi-disciplinary group from more than fifty organizations in seven countries. These included occupational physicians and nurses, travel medicine experts on jet lag and travel health risks, medical directors from companies in different business sectors, psychologists, and several management and HR experts.

There was consensus at the symposium that business travel is often a positive experience. However, work overload, cumulative fatigue, recovery from time zone travel and family disruptions collectively result in increased stress and also may impact the judgement and decision-making of frequent travelers.

Travel-related stress presents risks to employees and organizations for increased illness and healthcare costs and compromised work effectiveness. There is a need for increased understanding and education within companies about the impact of travel stress on employees and their families, so that direct and indirect costs can be minimized and employee well-being enhanced.

The Proceedings provided on this site are a full reproduction of the presentations at the symposium. We hope that these Proceedings will reach readers from many backgrounds—occupational health, travel medicine, mental health, human resources, management, frequent travelers and others—for further exchanges and linking across disciplines and organizations, in order to better understand the stresses of travelers, the impact on employees and organizations, and interventions to promote the health of business travelers.

We welcome any comments and ideas you would like to share with us. Please send questions, comments and ideas to travelsymposium@worldbank.org.

The symposium was developed and implemented by the joint occupational health department for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and co-sponsored by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

Disclaimer: These Proceedings have been produced from transcripts made from audio tapes. Efforts were made to check the accuracy of information with the various authors, but this accuracy is not guaranteed. If there is information that you believe requires correction, please send a message to our e-mail address.

Joint Bank-Fund Health Services Department The World Bank Group

E-mail contact: Sross2@worldbank.org

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Last update: October 23, 2000

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