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Are South African employees fit for work?

06 March 2007 Discovery Vitality

Corporate South AfricaWorried sick?

Just how healthy are South African companies? Or more to the point, how healthy is the average employee?  Preliminary research, conducted for Discovery Vitality under the auspices of UCT's Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, has been initiated. The aim of the research was to understand and assess:

* risk factors
* readiness to change
* the associated burden of illness and links to medical claims

in the corporate private sector.

In this preliminary work, data were analysed from corporate wellness days conducted by Vitality in 15 companies, representing several sectors including: engineering, logistics, consulting, information technology, manufacturing, academic, financial and transport. 

The results were disturbing. While South Africas corporate sector is relatively young, it leads an unhealthy life on the whole. Put another way, the average employee has a higher 'risk-related age', compared to their actual chronological age.

Research considered various behavioural aspects such as: smoking, physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake, as well as observable clinical measures like blood pressure, cholesterol and weight and height. Claims data for Discovery Health members were also used.  Remarkably, fewer than 15% of employees surveyed were reaching their dietary requirements for fruit and vegetable consumption, and 20% of those surveyed also reported smoking. 

88% were not meeting even minimal recommended levels of daily health-enhancing physical activity. Only 12% of participants were accumulating 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.

"Global data shows the risk of death from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, strokes and respiratory problems, is on the rise," says UCTs Professor Vicki Lambert. "However, these risks can be significantly reduced by changing ones behaviour, and specifically, lifestyle choices.  These choices include an abundance of fruit and vegetables in the diet (strive for five), regular physical activity (aim for 10,000 steps per day) and stopping smoking."

Clinical risks were also apparent, with nearly 20% of participants above the risk cut off level for cholesterol. Similar patterns emerged for blood pressure and hypertension and overweight.

All is not doom and gloom though, says Lambert. "We found a willingness among those with unhealthy lifestyles to address these problems, she says. For instance, some 56% of smokers said they would like to quit smoking within six months of participating in the wellness day.

Meanwhile, 63% of employees who fell below the 150 minutes of physical activity a week would like to become more active.

"There is thus no doubt that if companies engaged in programmes to help employees quit smoking, eat better and exercise more, that there would be a positive response from the employees.

The next big question is whether companies would stand to benefit from these programmes. Discovery Vitality's, Dr Craig Nossel feels sure this is the case.

"Our feedback from companies is that once they know the risk profiles of their employees, health promotion programmes can easily reduce absenteeism, enhance the companys image, raise motivation levels and productivity, and therefore have a positive impact on the bottom line," he says.

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