18 June 2008

Promoting noncommunicable disease prevention in the workplace

The World Health Organization (WHO) - World Economic Forum (WEF) report [PDF 613 kb, 52 pages] reveals that there is increasing cost of chronic diseases in the workplace. Moreover, chronic disease is responsible for more than 60 per cent of all deaths globally. The WHO-WEF report then calls for the worldwide promotion health programmes to tackle chronic disease in the workplace.

"....Chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease, is responsible for more than 60% of all deaths globally and is projected to account for 47 million deaths annually in the next 25 years. The economic consequences - driven by productivity reductions and increases in costs caused by these noncommunicable diseases among workforces - are dramatic. The WHO estimates that between 2005-2015, income loss (in international dollars) could rise to as much as $558 billion in China, $237 billion in India, $33 billion in Russia and $33 billion in the UK..."
The aims of the report is to provide a resource (with current evidence and key points) for stakeholders in creating policies related to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in the workplace. This is mainly through the promotion of healthy diets and physical activity.

There is also good rationale as to why workplace can be a suitable place to introduce this measure. Some health promotion programmes addressing tobacco use, physical inactivity, poor nutrition and other health behaviours have actually been introduced for years. The need might be to organise and integrate all of those existing programmes and use the workplace as a centre for health promotion settings. 

The degree to which this notion has an impact, however, much depends on the quality of the management in workplaces and government policy to support the occupational health resillience in general.


Here are the contents of the report, for your information
  1. Executive Summary
  2. Introduction
  3. Rationale for Using the Workplace as a Setting for Diet and Physical Activity Promotion
  4. Effectiveness and Efficiency of Workplace Health Promotion Interventions Targeting Diet and Physical Activity
  5. Workplace Health Promotion Policies and Programmes
  6. Multistakeholder Involvement
  7. Monitoring and Evaluation
  8. Gaps in Current Knowledge
  9. Overall Conclusions
  10. References
  11. Annex 1: List of Participants
  12. Annex 2: Key Resources

4 comments:

  1. If you are working in an office then you need a lot of exercises to burn calories. As you have written in your previous post, the most important thing is to have a good understanding of a healthy life. Stay healthy and be happy :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. wagh..intinya sih, pengennya masalah kesehatan di dunia ini umumnya dan khususnya di indonesia bisa teratasi

    ReplyDelete
  3. » ghozan,
    Exactly, in addition to that good nutrition is essential. This is often forgotten by employees

    » Okta Sihotang,
    Agak suit karena banyaknya determinants... tapi dimulai dari tempat kerja kayanya ide yang bagus :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Saat masih bekerja di Perbankan, banyak teman-teman berguguran...penyakit jantung, stroke, lever dsb nya. Bagi orang yang tak tahan stres, kondisi kerja yang sangat ketat, tekanan dari luar (apalagi saat krisis yang kadang membuat sering tidur dikantor, kerjaan tak henti-henti nya)...disamping itu ruangan ber AC membuat penularan penyakir sangat mudah...namun kalau dibuka jendela, karena tepat di dekat Semanggi...langsung deh hidung bisa hitam kena polusi udara.

    Akhirnya penggalakan GMCU (General Medical Check Up) untuk para manager ke atas digalakkan, dan bagi yang berpenyakit jantung umumnya tak boleh lagi pegang operasional yang tegangannya sangat tinggi.

    ReplyDelete

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