The American Psychological Association's (APA) 2009 Stress in America report describes the causes and impacts of stress in this country. Human resources professionals need to familiarize themselves with the report's findings to better guide their future allocation of benefits dollars.

One important implication of the report is the need for employee financial health care. Findings of the survey include:

•  75% of Americans report experiencing moderate to high levels of stress.
•  Money and financial problems rank as the No. 1 cause of stress.

The APA's report focuses on six areas of research: survey participants' perception of their personal stress; causes of stress; how well people manage stress; the impact of stress on families; how people deal with stress; and the management of chronic illness.

Last year 42% of Americans reported an increase in stress, with 24% of Americans reporting experiencing high levels of stress (eight or greater on a 10-point scale, where 10 means a very high level of stress).

Money, work and the economy were the top three sources of stress in 2009 with money ranked first. Over 70% of respondents ranked money as their number one source of stress. Family money issues far outranked housing costs, health issues and job stability as sources of stress.

Stress management

One unfortunate consequence of stress is how Americans deal with it. While 44% of Americans deal with stress by walking, many of us rely on the following sedentary strategies: 49% listen to music; 41% read; 36% watch TV; 33% play video games; 43% eat unhealthy foods; and 32% cope with stress by taking a nap. Especially unhealthy coping techniques include shopping (15%), smoking (14%) and drinking alcohol (14%).

Children and teens are also dealing with stress. Children aged eight to 12 and teens aged 13 to 17 ranked family money problems as their second leading source of stress (28% and 31%, respectively). For these two age groups, only school pressures ranked higher.

This is an amazing result when you realize that children ranked family money problems as being more stressful than social relationships, appearance issues, peer pressures and getting into college - things we normally associate with stress in children and teens. This show how deeply the current economic crisis has penetrated into the roots of American society.

Over 40% of Americans report experiencing anger, fatigue and loss of motivation because of their stress. More than 30% report anxiety, headaches, depression and crying, and greater than 20% of Americans report indigestion and muscular tension. Other reported symptoms from stress include tightness in chest, teeth grinding, loss of sex drive, feeling faint, change in menstrual cycle, and erectile dysfunction.

Stressed workers are unhealthy

Adults with stress levels in the eight to 10 range (with 10 being the highest level of stress) were less likely to eat healthy, exercise, lose weight, reduce stress and sleep more. Fourteen percent of adults reported they felt too stressed to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Relative-to-low stressed individuals, moderately and highly stressed individuals are less likely to make lifestyle changes such as eating healthy, exercising more, losing weight, reducing stress and getting more sleep - nevermind saving for retirement.

Gender differences

Women suffer more stress than men and women report the highest levels of stress (27% versus 19%). More women (75%) than men (67%) rank money as an important source of stress. In addition, more women (66%) than men (59%) rank the economy as a significant source of stress. More women than men respond to stress by not sleeping (52% vs. 42%) and excessive eating of unhealthy foods (52% vs. 33%).

Finally, women report higher levels of the following stress-induced symptoms: irritability and anger,; fatigue; lack of energy and motivation; feeling nervous and anxious; feeling depressed; headaches; wanting to cry; indigestion; muscular tension; and change in appetite.

Stress is a major health problem. Money and financial problems rank as the No. 1 cause of stress. Directly, stress has serious health consequences like anxiety and depression. Indirectly, stress leads to lifestyle choices such as overeating and not sleeping that adversely affect health.

One dimension of stress not often considered by HR is that stress mitigates the effectiveness of other benefits programs, retirement benefits in particular.

If employees can't pay their everyday expenses, they're less likely to enroll in your retirement plan at all, let alone contribute up to the match or be open to more indepth investment advice. Since the No. 1 cause of stress is financial, HR pros must incorporate financial wellness as part of their overall retirement planning strategy.

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