FitSense has recently finished implementing the first stage of a comprehensive wellness program for a local Canberra organisation. I say the first stage because as with any good wellness program it is an ongoing process. Over the last three months, program participants have had access to individual health and fitness assessments, free gym memberships, seminars, and a one-on-one coaching session with an exercise physiologist where participants receive individualised training program.

There is no doubt that program participants are benefiting greatly. The increased awareness of health and fitness within the organisation has been coupled with an increase in physical activity. We look forward to seeing the long-term benefits for both individual participants and from an organisational viewpoint.

Additionally, for FitSense, the company providing the wellness program we are taking great pleasure in regular contact with program participants as we really feel we are assisting participants to improve their lifestyle and make change. Due to the ongoing nature of the program, our staff enjoy the responsibility of persisting program participants to make effective lifestyle changes.

These comprehensive wellness programs benefit all involved. Program participants learn a great deal about improving their health and wellness and get ongoing support from professionals. In turn, the organisation gets healthier and fitter staff resulting in reduced absenteeism and greater productivity. Just as importantly, staff also become more loyal to the organisation thus reducing staff turnover. From a service provider prospective, our staff appreciate the opportunity to work closely with program participants and to maximise the benefits that program participants get. We are also dedicated to the success of the program and thus willing to put all resources required to assist program participants and the organisation.

We are all aware that the Australian population is becoming more overweight, as are the populations of many other Western societies. So it was with great interest recently that I read how in Canada, court rulings have forced airlines to offer obese people two seats. The Canadian Transportation Agency has told airlines that they are discriminating against obese passengers by making them pay extra if they wish to have two seats. The new ruling means that obese people will now be charged only one fare but have access to 2 seats.

Whether you agree with this or not, that is not the issue. The main issue here is that obesity is becoming so common that it is now almost normal. Over half of the Australian population is considered overweight or obese. Therefore, when we talk about an average person, that average person is overweight. Unfortunately this is the category the majority of us now fit into.

The Canadian airline incident is not the first example of organisations being required to cater for the obese as obesity becomes more of a global crisis. In recent years the New South Wales ambulance service has been required to develop what they call the mega lift ambulances which are capable of dealing with patients who weigh greater than 180 kg.

Obesity has always been an issue in our society, unfortunately it is just becoming more and more common.

November 14 marked World Diabetes Day. Diabetes is Australia’s fastest growing chronic disease, and the fourth leading cause of death by disease globally. Every 10 seconds someone in the world dies from diabetes related causes.

These statistics highlight the importance of diabetes and why it is getting more and more attention as a major health issue within Australia.

There are two main types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2. Type 1 diabetes is the less common form of diabetes, affecting only 10 to 15% of all diabetics. The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is not known, however it is often strongly related to a family history of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the more common form of diabetes affecting 85 to 90% of all diabetics. Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease and strongly associated with high blood pressure, being overweight or obese, insufficient physical activity and poor diet. Other risk factors include having a family history of diabetes, age, and being of aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

It is estimated that 60% of type 2 diabetes can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including:

• Regular physical activity
• Making healthy food choices
• Maintaining a healthy body weight
• Not smoking
• Managing blood pressure
• Managing cholesterol levels

So despite the severity and prevalence of diabetes, it is very much preventable in most cases. Having a healthy lifestyle is crucial, but it is also beneficial to one to take regular diabetes screening.

For more information, download FitSense Australia’s November Wellness Newsletter.

Corporate wellness programs continue to get a lot of attention in the media in the US. Despite the obvious differences of such programs compared to those run Australia (many US wellness programs are aimed at reducing health insurance costs which are covered by the employer), this still makes interesting reading.

A recent survey of 225 American-based companies reported some interesting facts. On the positive side, 83% of organisations with wellness programs said that the cost savings as a result of the program more than covered the cost of implementing such a program. This shows that the wellness program was worthwhile.

However, a surprisingly large number of organisations did not measure the impact of the wellness programs. This is surprising given the large financial investment in many of these programs. Internal reporting should allow the organisation to measure the effectiveness of the program, or at the very least the wellness providers should provide their clients with an objective measure of the benefits of the program being implemented.

Organisations implementing a wellness program will do so for a reason; they generally have set objective which they want to achieve. In order to determine whether they have successfully achieved this objective, it is obviously important to be able to measure the performance of the program. This is something that the wellness provider should be able to assist with.

I hope your workplace wellness program is proving effective.

More and more Australian companies, both large and small, are seeing the importance of workplace wellness programs. This means that the demand for programs is ever-increasing, however it also means that there is more and more corporate wellness providers coming onto the scene.

Interestingly, some recent American research highlighted that nearly half of employers that used corporate wellness services were unhappy with their current wellness provider. This is quite alarming given the financial investment that companies make in their staff’s health and the importance of having successful outcomes of such programs.

From our experience, many companies are not satisfied with their wellness program for a number of reasons, the most common being:

• Lack of time and attention by the wellness provider - many providers are too thinly stretched and therefore not offering a comprehensive program;
• The program doesn’t suit the organisation’s needs - many providers offer generic programs and hope that ‘one size fits all’;
• The program does not correctly target the type of staff participating - for example, a different approach needs to be taken with office staff compared to field officers;
• The program is not based on sound scientific principles;
• The program outcomes are not meeting the organisation’s needs - the provider does not clearly understand what the organisation hopes to achieve with the program.

The list goes on. But in summary this highlights that corporate wellness providers have to get better at meeting the needs of organisations wanting to implement wellness programs.

As the corporate wellness provider, FitSense feels that many providers do not give their clients adequate time and attention to run a customised and effective wellness program. Our philosophy is that we would prefer to work with a small number of clients and ensure we meet their needs and have effective program outcomes.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) conducts an annual survey on worldwide trends in health and fitness. They have recently released the results of this survey for what is expected in 2009. Implementing a comprehensive health promotion program at the workplace is rated number 12 in the 2009 survey. This is up from number 17 in 2008 and number 13 in 2007.

High ranking trends across the last three years include children and obesity, improved education and experience for fitness professionals, and strength training. As you can see these categories are quite broad, but what it does highlight is the importance of health programs within the workplace.

With approximately 95% of the adult population in Australia currently in work, workplace health programs offer an effective way of improving the overall health and wellness of the working age population.

The ACSM survey is also clear to use the word comprehensive when it refers to the type of health promotion programs within the workplace. There is no doubt that it is going to take a comprehensive wellness program to have a substantial impact on improving employees health and fitness.

It is also of interest that ‘work incentive programs’ ranked at number 14 in the survey. This describes the trend towards creating incentive programs to stimulate health behaviour change is part of employer-based health promotion programs.

There has been much discussion in the media recently about the censoring of junk food advertising, especially to children. One such article can be seen here.

This topic definitely raises an interesting debate and there is no doubt that minimising the advertising of junk food will make people less inclined to eat such feeds, but the question must be asked ‘Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to educate the population on making healthy food choices?’.

Being an exercise physiologist, my feeling is that we will get more long-term benefits through education in areas such as food selection, portion control and cooking methods than we will by simply removing advertising. The removal of advertising does not make the product available, it simply means it is less ‘in-your-face’. If we are able to better educate the population on healthy lifestyle habits then this will assist in making better long-term food selection and thus hopefully reducing the rate of obesity.

If there is a particular interest in protecting our children from obesity, then perhaps the national focus should be on school-based nutrition and exercise education.

I know this is easier said than done. There are definitely no easy answers.

In reading some research recently, the importance of the health of managerial and executive staff organisations really struck me. The research was related to the Quality of Working Life study which analysed responses from executive staff within Australia and the UK. Most strikingly, 50% of Australian managers believed their health was negatively affected by their long working hours. This is of obvious concern given the importance of these staff to their organisation. It definitely seems a little backwards,�the organisation is requiring so much from their managers that their managers health is deteriorating and thus their work performance is dropping as well.

The burden of long working hours on managers is not surprising, with the research quoting�91% of respondents worked more than their normal contract hours regularly. These long work hours in turn had a negative effect on various health factors, and over half the respondents felt that the excessive hours resulted in a lower decision-making ability while at work.

While monitoring work hours for managers is obviously a major strategy in addressing these issues, it is often difficult for managers to reduce their working hours simply due to the nature of their job roles. Therefore, the development of stress management strategies, health monitoring strategies, and the promotion of regular exercise to managers in a practical means to assist these important staff to improve their health, wellness and ultimately their job performance.