Search

Overweight and obesity has reach pandemic levels, with two-thirds (67%) of adult Australians classified as overweight or obese. As two of the most significant behavioral risk factors for obesity are modifiable (diet and exercise), there exists an opportunity for treatment through workplace health promotion initiatives. As one of Australia's largest industries with its own unique workplace factors, the mining industry has previously reported higher than population levels of overweight and obesity. This represented an opportune setting to test the RESHAPE workplace wellness program. RESHAPE is an eight-step framework (based on the WHO 'Health Workplace Framework and Model') which aims to provide a sustained approach to wellness in the workplace. This paper presents baseline findings from a pilot study that aimed to implement RESHAPE at three mine sites in NSW, Australia, and investigates the issue of overweight and obesity in the coal mining industry. Across three mine sites, 949 coal miners were examined cross-sectionally on a range of workplace, wellness, health, diet, and exercise factors using a paper-based survey. This was a predominantly male sample (90.4%) with the majority (59.2%) of participants aged 25–44 years. Self-reported height and weight measures indicated that less than 20 percent (18.9%) of participants were in a healthy BMI range, while there were effectively equal numbers of overweight (40.9%) and obese (39.1%) participants. Only 3.5% of participants met the daily recommendation for vegetables (5 serves) and shift-workers had greater association with elevated BMI compared to non-shift workers (B = 1.21, 95% CI: 0.23, 2.20, p = 0.016). Poor nutrition is likely to be a key component in elevated levels of overweight and obesity within this industry, with workplace factors compounding challenges workers face in implementing health behavior change. Future studies would benefit from assessing diet and physical activity knowledge in relation to recommendations and serving sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 71% of deaths in 2021. The chronic and pervasive nature of these diseases spurs the need for novel treatment approaches, including using the workplace as a front for the promotion and dissemination of health messages and activities. Taking this into consideration, this study aimed to assess the efficacy of a workplace health promotion program that targeted nutrition, physical activity, and obesity outcomes in a New South Wales (NSW) coal mine site. Design: A 12-week quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test study. Setting: A coal mine site in rural NSW, Australia. Participants: At baseline there were n = 389 participants, with similar numbers at follow-up (n = 420) as well as 61 participants from both timepoints (8.2% repeated measures), with 89% of participants being male. Intervention: A multicomponent wellness intervention was implemented incorporating aspects of education, goal setting, and competition. Outcomes: Physical activity, nutrition, and weight. Results: The mean BMI at baseline was 30.01 kg/m2, and at follow-up 29.79 kg/m2 (p = 0.39). At follow-up, participants reported 81% lower odds of engaging in the exercise category 'no moderate physical exercise' (OR = 0.09, p < 0.001), as well as 111% higher odds of meeting physical activity and exercise guidelines (OR = 2.11, p = 0.057). There were no changes to diet outcomes and no association between employment characteristics and participating in physical activity. Conclusions: Workplace health promotion programs can be an efficacious strategy in improving physical activity outcomes and marginally improving weight outcomes in those in the mining industry. Further research is needed to determine the true effectiveness of these programs long-term, particularly in an environment as challenging and dynamic as the mining industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Excess weight can increase absenteeism of workers and can have a negative influence on their productivity. Current evidence on this association is mostly based on cross-sectional data and there is little evidence concerning the longitudinal relationship between obesity, and disability with workplace absenteeism. Further, gender differences in this association have often ignored in the existing literature. Objectives: This study aims to examine gender differences in the longitudinal association between obesity, and disability with absenteeism in the workplace. Methods: Data from thirteen waves (2006 to 2018) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were pooled, resulting in 117,769 observations for 19,851 adult employees. The Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) regression model was deployed to investigate the links between obesity, and disability with workplace absenteeism for the total sample and stratified by gender. Results: The findings showed that overweight (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR]: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–1.47), obesity (IRR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.12–1.64) and disability (IRR: 2.83, 95% CI: 2.36–3.38) were associated with prolonged workplace absenteeism irrespective of gender. This study found that the multiplicative interaction between weight status and gender is significantly associated with absenteeism. The results reveal that the rate of absenteeism was 2.79 times (IRR: 2.79, 95% CI: 1.96–3.97) and 1.73 times (IRR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.20–2.48) higher among overweight and obese women than male counterparts, respectively. Moreover, this study found that the weight status of male workers is not associated with absenteeism. However, disability (IRR: 3.14, 95% CI: 2.43–4.05) is positively associated with longer days of absence among male workers. Finally, the study results showed that the rate of absenteeism is 1.82 (IRR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.36–2.44), 1.61 (IRR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.21–2.13), and 2.63 (IRR: 2.63, 95% CI: 1.99–3.48) times higher among overweight, obese, and female workers with a disability, respectively, compared with their lower weight counterparts. Conclusions: Workplace absenteeism is significantly associated with overweight and obesity among Australian workers. An active workplace health promotion program is very important for weight management of overweight and obese workers and thus to reduce workplace absenteeism. For example, employers may provide incentives for maintaining recommended body weights, encourage exercise, and promote healthy diets amongst their workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]