Biometric Red Flags: What Health and Wellness Metrics Predict Higher Workers’ Compensation Risk?

Most employers are familiar with biometric screenings by now. You bring in a vendor or send people to a lab like Labcorp or Quest Diagnostics for a quick blood test, they get their finger pricked and blood pressure taken, maybe step on a scale, answer a few health questions, grab a gift card or a T-shirt, and head back to work. It checks the "wellness" box for the year, but after that, the biometric screening results usually just disappear into a portal nobody logs back into.

Here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough: those same numbers can tell you a lot about your workers’ compensation risk if you know how to read them. Metrics like BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and tobacco use aren’t just predictions about future health claims. They’re early warning signs for how likely someone is to get hurt on the job, and how long and expensive that claim might be if they do.

According to the American Heart Association, 40% of U.S. adults are obese, and obesity contributes to cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses that account for an estimated 4 million deaths globally. Meanwhile, the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention emphasizes that conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are leading preventable risk factors, and screenings are essential for early detection and treatment.

Put in simple terms:

• Higher risk metrics (obesity, high blood pressure, poorly controlled blood sugar, smoking) are tied to a higher chance of injury, and
• They also tend to mean slower healing, more complications, and longer time away from work when injuries happen.

This article is about connecting those dots. We’ll break down which health metrics are most closely tied to workers’ compensation risk, what “higher risk” generally looks like in those numbers, and how a smart employer can use biometric screening results to protect both employees and the business.
This isn’t about blaming or shaming anyone for their health. It’s about understanding where real risk lives, using the data already collected from those Labcorp visits and on-site screenings, and then supporting people in ways that keep them safer, healthier, and more likely to recover well if something does go wrong.

What Biometric Screenings Measure (and Why It Matters)

At its core, a biometric screening is just a short health check. It’s not a full physical, and it’s not meant to replace someone’s relationship with their own doctor. It’s a quick way to grab a few key numbers that say a lot about what’s going on under the hood.

Most biometric screenings measure things like:

• Height and weight, which are used to calculate BMI
• Blood pressure, to flag potential hypertension
• A basic cholesterol panel – total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides
• Blood sugar, usually fasting glucose and/or A1C
• Sometimes nicotine/tobacco use, waist circumference, resting heart rate, or a simple health questionnaire about stress, sleep, and activity

Employers usually offer these screenings to give employees a quick snapshot of their health and to spot risk factors early, before they turn into bigger medical issues. They often sit under the umbrella of a workplace wellness program or health plan design, and they’re supposed to help people make better choices and get care when they need it.

According to Harvard Business Review, workplace wellness programs, including biometric screenings have become increasingly common as employers recognize the connection between employee health and business performance.

What doesn’t always get said out loud is how much these same metrics matter for workers’ compensation. High BMI, elevated blood pressure, out-of-range cholesterol, uncontrolled blood sugar, and tobacco use don’t just predict future medical claims, they’re also strongly tied to injury risk, recovery time, and claim severity when someone gets hurt at work. The numbers you collect on “wellness day” are quietly connected to what you end up paying on the workers’ comp side.

One important thing to remember: employees’ individual results are private health information. Employers don’t see personal medical details. What you get back are aggregate trends. Overall patterns across your workforce that can help you understand risk without singling anyone out. Used the right way, those patterns can guide safer work practices, smarter wellness efforts, and a more informed approach to managing workers’ compensation.

How Biometric Results Connect to Workplace Injuries

Once you know what biometric screenings measure, the next question is: what do these numbers have to do with workplace injuries and workers’ compensation?

Certain biometric “red flags” tend to travel with the kinds of problems that show up in workers’ compensation claims. High BMI and poor fitness often go hand-in-hand with lower strength and stamina, which makes physical work harder and increases the risk of strains, sprains, and overexertion injuries. Issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, and poor circulation can mean slower healing and more complications when someone does get hurt. Tobacco use can affect oxygen and tissue repair, which can drag out recovery from even fairly routine injuries. And when people are dealing with chronic stress or poor sleep, you’re looking at reduced balance, reaction time, and focus, a bad combo around ladders, machinery, or even a wet floor.

Most of the time, these preventable health conditions don’t directly “cause” the accident. A box still gets lifted wrong, a step still gets missed, a tool still slips. But conditions like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and poor conditioning often decide how bad the injury is and how long it lingers. They act like multipliers in the background.

It also helps to think in terms of frequency vs. severity. Some biometric risk factors like poor conditioning, fatigue, and stress are more tied to how often injuries happen. Others, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular risk are more tied to how severe and expensive those injuries become once they’re on the books.

In the next sections, we’ll walk through the key biometric metrics one by one and talk about what each one means for workers’ compensation risk, so those screening results start to look less like random numbers and more like a useful map of where your real exposure lives.

1. BMI, Waist Size, and the Risk of Strains, Sprains, and Slips

When it comes to biometric screening results, BMI and waist circumference are usually the first numbers people notice, and sometimes the ones they’re most sensitive about. Strip away the emotion, and they’re really just rough tools for understanding how much extra load someone’s joints, spine, and heart are carrying around all day.

From a workers’ compensation perspective, that extra load matters. Higher BMI and larger waist size are linked to more stress on the back, knees, hips, and feet. That doesn’t just show up at the doctor’s office; it shows up on the shop floor, in the warehouse, on the ladder, or even in an office when someone leans and twists the wrong way. As we've explored in detail in our article on the link between obesity, injury, and workers' compensation costs, employees with higher BMI are more likely to experience musculoskeletal strain, things like back injuries, knee pain, and shoulder issues, and they tend to have a harder time bouncing back once an injury happens.

There’s also a balance and stability piece. Extra weight carried around the midsection can shift someone’s center of gravity and make slips, trips, and falls more likely, especially on uneven surfaces or when they’re moving quickly. So when you see your aggregate biometric data skew toward higher BMI and larger waist measurements, it’s a clue that your workforce may be carrying more strain and fall risk than you’d like.

This doesn’t mean you single people out or turn screenings into a lecture about weight. Instead, you use the trend as a planning tool. If BMI and waist size are common risk markers in your population, that’s a signal to invest in things like ergonomics, strength and conditioning, safer lifting practices, and nutrition and weight management support. You’re not trying to turn everyone into fitness models—you’re just trying to reduce the amount of stress employees’ bodies are under so they’re less likely to get hurt, and more likely to recover well when they do.

2. Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and the Cost of Complications

Two of the most important numbers hiding in your biometric screening results are blood pressure and cholesterol. They don’t always feel as “real” to people as a sore knee or tight back, but they say a lot about how hard the heart and blood vessels are working in the background every single day.
High blood pressure (hypertension) means the heart is pushing against more resistance than it should. Over time, that wears on the cardiovascular system and can leave people feeling more tired, less resilient, and more prone to headaches, dizziness, or shortness of breath—especially in physically demanding jobs. Unhealthy cholesterol patterns (high LDL, low HDL, elevated triglycerides) add another layer, increasing the risk of heart disease, reduced circulation, and other issues that don’t always show up until something stressful happens.

On the workers’ compensation side, these metrics matter less for how often someone gets hurt and more for what happens after the injury. When an employee with high blood pressure or significant cardiovascular risk needs surgery, experiences a serious fracture, or even just has a moderate musculoskeletal injury, there’s a higher chance of complications. Recovery can be slower, rehab can be harder, and doctors may have to be more cautious about how quickly they push someone back to full duty. All of that can turn a straightforward claim into a longer, more expensive workers’ compensation case. As discussed in our guide on how preventative health plans help businesses reduce workers' compensation costs, early detection and management of these cardiovascular risk factors can significantly impact claim outcomes.

Again, this isn’t about diagnosing anyone based on a screening, and it’s definitely not about blaming employees for their numbers. It’s about recognizing that if your aggregate biometric data shows a lot of elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, you’re probably carrying more hidden claim severity risk than you realize. That’s a cue to lean into things like preventive care, coaching, telemedicine, and heart-healthy education—not just to avoid future medical claims, but to make sure that when injuries do happen, your people are in the best possible shape to heal.

3. ​​Blood Sugar and A1C: Why Diabetes Makes Claims Harder

Another set of biometric screening results that deserves real attention is blood sugar, usually measured as fasting glucose and/or A1C. These numbers tell you how well a person’s body is handling sugar over time, and they’re a key way to spot prediabetes and diabetes early.

When blood sugar is consistently high, it doesn’t just raise long-term health concerns. It also affects how the body heals and responds to stress. Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to reduced circulation, nerve damage, and a weaker immune system. That combination shows up in slower wound healing, a higher risk of infections, and more complications after surgery or even minor injuries.

On the workers’ compensation side, that’s a big deal. Take two employees with the same ankle fracture or back surgery. The one with well-controlled blood sugar is much more likely to follow a relatively straightforward recovery path. The one with uncontrolled diabetes may face infections, delayed healing, or other complications that keep them off work longer and increase the overall claim cost. In other words, elevated blood sugar and A1C don’t necessarily make injuries more likely, but they often make those injuries harder and more expensive to resolve.

From an employer’s perspective, seeing a lot of elevated blood sugar and A1C in your aggregate biometric data is like seeing a warning light on the dashboard. It doesn’t mean you diagnose or call anyone out. It means you recognize that a sizable portion of your workforce may be at higher risk for longer, more complex workers’ comp claims. That’s your cue to lean into things like nutrition support, weight management, diabetes education, and easier access to primary care, so more employees can get help managing blood sugar before it shows up as a problem in your injury reports. Our article on how to start a wellness program at your company offers practical guidance on implementing these types of targeted health interventions.

4. Tobacco Use: Small Metric, Big Impact on Claims

Tucked into many biometric screenings is a simple question or test about tobacco or nicotine use. On paper, it looks like a small detail, justone checkbox or a quick lab result. In reality, it’s one of the biggest quiet signals about how someone’s body might handle an injury.

Tobacco use affects the body in a few key ways that matter a lot for workers’ comp. It reduces oxygen delivery to tissues, slows down circulation, and interferes with bone and soft tissue healing. Smokers and nicotine users are more likely to have complications after surgery, slower healing of fractures and sprains, and a tougher time recovering from back and joint injuries. They’re also more prone to chronic cough and breathing issues, which can sap stamina and focus, especially in physically demanding or outdoor roles.

That doesn’t mean every tobacco user is guaranteed to have a bad outcome, and it definitely doesn’t mean you use biometric screening results to lecture or shame people. But if your aggregate data shows a high rate of nicotine use, it’s a strong hint that you’re carrying extra claim complexity risk in the background. The same injuries may cost more and take longer to resolve simply because healing is harder.

For employers, the takeaway is simple: treat tobacco use as a meaningful risk flag, not just a line on a form. Offer respectful, genuinely helpful smoking cessation support, make it easy to access counseling or telehealth for quitting, and consider tying small incentives to participation. As outlined in our guide on how to structure safety incentive programs that actually work, incentives can be effective when they encourage healthy behaviors without feeling punitive. You’re not trying to control anyone’s life, you’re trying to give people real options to improve their health, which in turn supports safer work and smoother recoveries when injuries happen.

5. Conditioning Metrics: Who’s Physically Ready for the Work?

Not every important risk factor shows up as a lab value. Some biometric screenings and wellness programs also look at simple conditioning metrics, things like resting heart rate, basic fitness assessments, or even self-reported activity levels. These numbers help paint a picture of how physically prepared someone is for the demands of their job.

A consistently high resting heart rate can be a sign that the body is working harder than it should even at rest. Pair that with low activity levels or poor fitness, and you’re likely looking at employees who fatigue faster, struggle more with physical tasks, and don’t have much reserve when the workday gets intense. That doesn’t mean they aren’t trying, it just means their body may not be as ready for the load they’re putting on it.

From a workers’ comp standpoint, poor conditioning is tied closely to overexertion and strain injuries. Tired muscles and low endurance make it easier to tweak a back, strain a shoulder, or misjudge a lift. Fatigue also increases the odds of mistakes and accidents—especially later in a shift or week. On the flip side, employees with better conditioning tend to handle physical tasks more safely and are often more resilient when injuries do happen, bouncing back faster and responding better to rehab.

When you look at your aggregate biometric and wellness data and see signs of low conditioning like high resting heart rates, low reported activity, or patterns of fatigue complaints, it’s not a reason to call anyone out. It’s a signal to look at how work is structured and what support you’re offering. That might mean more realistic pacing for physically demanding jobs, access to strength and balance programs, or wellness initiatives that make it easier for people to build up their fitness over time. For practical ideas on implementation, see our article on how to start a wellness program at your company. The goal isn’t to turn your whole workforce into gym regulars; it’s to gently move more people into a place where their bodies match the work they’re being asked to do.

6. Stress and Mental Health: The Metrics You Can’t Ignore

Some of the most important risk signals don’t come from a blood test at all. Many biometric screenings and wellness programs now include short mental health or stress questionnaires—simple questions about sleep, mood, anxiety, burnout, or how overwhelmed someone feels. It might not look as “official” as a cholesterol number, but for workers’ comp risk, these mental health metrics are huge.

High levels of stress, anxiety, depression, or burnout don’t always show up as a diagnosis, but they absolutely show up in how people work. Stressed-out employees are more likely to be distracted, rushed, or checked out. They may cut corners, miss hazards, or misjudge a lift or a step. Chronic stress and poor sleep also drain energy and slow reaction time, which is a bad mix around equipment, ladders, loading docks, or even busy offices.

Mental health also plays a big role after an injury. When someone is already dealing with anxiety, depression, or burnout, a physical injury can feel much bigger and harder to bounce back from. Pain can feel worse, motivation to do rehab can be lower, and fear about returning to work can be higher. That combination often leads to longer claim duration, more medical visits, and a tougher path back to full duty. As we've discussed extensively in our article on what companies can do to help employees with mental health, addressing mental health proactively is essential for both employee wellbeing and workers' compensation outcomes.

If your aggregate screening data and surveys show a lot of stress, poor sleep, or low mood, that’s not just a “soft” wellness concern, it’s a real safety and workers’ compensation risk indicator. The answer isn’t to pry into anyone’s private life or slap a “be more resilient” poster on the wall. It’s to treat mental health as a legitimate part of your risk picture and respond accordingly: reasonable workloads and schedules, access to counseling or EAP services, managers trained to recognize burnout, and a culture where asking for help doesn’t feel like a career-ending move. Those changes don’t just help people feel better—they reduce the odds of accidents and help injured employees come back stronger and sooner.

Using Biometric Results to Protect Your People and Your Business

At this point, it’s pretty clear that biometric screening results are a lot more than wellness trivia. They’re early warning signals for workers’ compensation risk. When you zoom out and look at the patterns, BMI and waist size, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, tobacco use, overall conditioning, and mental health, you’re really looking at the underlying factors that shape how likely people are to get hurt and how hard it is for them to recover if they do.

The goal isn’t to punish anyone for their numbers or turn your workplace into a medical clinic. It’s to use the information you’re already collecting to support people better and build a safer, healthier environment. If you know that obesity, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, poor conditioning, and high stress show up a lot in your screening data, then it makes sense to design your wellness, safety, and benefits strategy with those realities in mind.

For small and mid-sized employers who are already paying for biometric screenings, the next step is making sure that data actually goes to work for you. That’s where Alloy Employer Services can help. Alloy can help you connect the dots between biometric results, workplace wellness program components, and workers’ comp outcomes, so you’re not just checking a box, you’re actively reducing risk.

Ready to make your biometric screening data work for you? Contact us today to schedule a consultation, or request a free claims assessment to see how health risk factors are impacting your workers' compensation costs. You can also explore our resources on how preventative health plans help businesses reduce workers' compensation costs and how to start a wellness program at your company.