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WellbeingOccupational Health

OH departments need to embrace fat challenge

by Personnel Today 2 Oct 2004
by Personnel Today 2 Oct 2004

The changes in work patterns in this country over the past three decades has led to a shift in emphasis for OH departments, from managing health and safety within heavy industry to tackling the problems of stress and musculoskeletal disorders in primarily office-based workplaces.

And according to a Commons Select Committee earlier this year (OH news, July 2004), the increase in numbers of obese adults in the workplace is another less acknowledged consequence of our more sedentary lifestyle.

As the article reveals, the number of obese adult women in the UK has nearly trebled in 20 years from about 8 per cent to 23 per cent, while in men the rates have nearly quadrupled, from 6 per cent to 22 per cent.

The costs to this country and its workforce are staggering. A study by the National Audit Office in 2002 estimated that obesity costs the NHS £500m a year, with the overall cost to the country estimated at up to £7.4bn a year.

No wonder the Commons Select Committee was surprised at the lack of interest employers were taking in helping to tackle this (literally) expanding problem and was encouraging them to take a more proactive stance.

This month’s issue publishes the latest thinking on ways to tackle the obesity epidemic. Three of the short listed teams described in the awards profile have instigated health promotion initiatives, which go some away to tackling the core problems of obesity in the workforce.

And the CPD article on obesity describes the increasing levels of ill health and workplace absence caused by obesity and offers tips on instigating workable health promotions.

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There are also plentiful resources for OH practitioners in the front line of this huge health promotion challenge.

By Sara Bean, editor [email protected]


Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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