In a society like the current one with increasing problems of overweight and cardiovascular diseases that in turn are the main risk factor for many other diseases, including strokes and different types of cancer, it is obvious that the importance of implementing health plans in companies goes beyond achieving a reduction in the absenteeism rate since the main beneficiaries are the employees themselves.
Health programs that aim to train and help change the lifestyle towards healthy habits act from three perspectives: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
Primary prevention measures in the workplace are aimed at employees who are generally healthy, although they also represent an opportunity for those workers who do not have a good state of health and who can be victims of diseases and disorders that can be prevented or delay if certain measures are taken. Examples of primary prevention include programs that promote exercise and fitness, healthy eating, weight control, stress management, moderate alcohol consumption, among other measures. Special approaches such as using health roster online can be used to support the programs.
Secondary prevention measures would include all those aimed at employees who are already at high risk due to certain lifestyle practices (for example, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, high alcohol consumption and mainly high stress) and they have abnormal biometric values (for example, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood glucose, overweight). Examples of secondary prevention include hypertension tests and programs to reduce and control it, anti-smoking programs and weight loss counseling.
Finally, health promotion programs sometimes include tertiary prevention elements, aimed at individuals with existing ailments such as asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders and depression, with the aim of improving the disease or retarding its development. These programs promote better medication compliance and compliance with evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for outpatient treatment. These types of disease treatment programs also encourage collaboration between patients, their families, doctors, other health care providers and disease management program staff, and routine feedback cycles are established between these groups.
In any case, there are innumerable reasons to invest time and resources in creating a healthy work environment and workforce, however the reality seems to be still far from this evidence.
According to data from the latest Mercer Marsh Benefits study on medical trends in the world (a report that analyzes data from 225 insurers in 62 countries), only 14% of companies worldwide are currently offering their employees long-term preventive programs related to healthy lifestyle habits.
Even so, as we see, and although more and more companies are betting on it, the percentage is still low.
If your company does not currently have initiatives to improve the health and welfare of employees, there are some simple ways to start:
.-Provide healthy food in the office
.-Propose “moving” moments during the workday as part of their routine so that employees get up and move throughout the day motivating physical activity or teaching employees different ways of doing small exercises.
.- Develop healthy contests
.- Invest in health programs developed by professionals
