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Obesity in the workplace IS a big problem.
It is a growing problem with repercussions that has the potential to take some companies by surprise over the next few years. The impact on the workplace goes above and beyond the impact on the individuals involved and may be a major factor in future medical plan design and cost. It is an ever-increasing expenditure affecting the bottom line of companies everywhere. In part, this is due to the fact that as we continue to shift from a manufacturing economy to a service economy work environments are becoming more sedentary every year.
A primary benefit of reducing obesity in the workplace is having happier and healthier employees. A secondary side benefit is that happier and healthier employees are more productive and take less time off because of illness relating to problems caused by being overweight. The most startling thing about the obesity problem in the workplace is the rapid and dramatic increase over the last few years in the number of people who are becoming obese or even morbidly obese.
The percentage of adults classified as obese doubled between 1980 and 2000, from 15% to 31%. (1999 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, CDC National Center for Health Statistics).
Health risks associated with obesity include: hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine problems, gall bladder disease, lung and breathing problems, arthritis, and premature death. UnumProvident, a provider of disability income protection insurance, reports a tenfold increase over the past decade in short-term disability claims attributed to obesity, based on research using their disability database.
Employers can play an important part in providing a healthy work environment and offsetting or reducing the financial burden to the workplace resulting from this dramatic rise in obesity.
It is the individual responsibility of employees to do their part in addressing or fighting their own obesity issues and lifestyle choices, but it is in the best interest of employers to contribute to the solution as well.
Definitions Of Obesity
Obese is generally defined as at least 15KG to 20KG overweight.
Severely obese is considered to be at least 60 pounds overweight.
Morbidly obese is at least 50KG overweight.
Super obese is considered at least 100KG overweight.
Physicians consider a person to be obese if they weigh more than 20% above expected weight for age, height, and body build. Morbid or malignant obesity is when a person is over 50Kg above that expected for age, height, and build.
Obesity In The Workplace
A study published in the Journal of Health Behavior showed that annual medical expenses for employees increased from S$114 for normal-weight individuals to S$573 for the overweight - to S$620 for the obese. Obesity is associated with millions of lost work days and millions of restricted-activity days.
The average absence for a worker who files an obesity-related Short-Term Disability claim is 45 days, according to MetLife.
Obese individuals have higher health care utilization rates: 36 percent higher inpatient and outpatient spending 77 percent higher medication spending 45 percent more inpatient days 48 percent more expenditures over 11 percent higher annual health care costs
As you can see the prevalence of obesity has increased exponentially all over the world in recent decades, fuelled by rapid global
industrialisation which led to widespread affluence. a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in many countries, ranging from 23.2% in Japan to 66.3% in the USA (developed countries), and from 13.4% in Indonesia to 72.5% in Saudi Arabia (developing countries).
In Singapore, the National Health Surveys showed that the prevalence of overweight among adults (18-69 years)rose from 26.2% in 1992 to 32.5% in 2004, while that for obesity rose from 5.1% to 6.9% in the same period. The management of obesity requires considerable time and effort, not only from the physician but also other allied health professionals, such as nutritionist and exercise therapist.
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