Workplace Wellbeing Day 2018 takes place this Friday, 13 April

Thursday, 12th April 2018

By June Shannon

More than one in four or 27 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women working in the manufacturing industry have high blood pressure, putting them at increased risk of heart attack or stroke, new data has shown.

The results of more than 13,000 employee health screenings carried out by laya healthcare also revealed that those working in construction, security and manufacturing had the highest rates of blood pressure.

The screening results were launched to mark Workplace Wellbeing Day 2018 which takes place on Friday (13 April).

According to the results, 19 per cent of male and 16 per cent of female workers are obese and men working in the media are most likely to be obese (24 per cent), followed by manufacturing (22 per cent), medical workers (21 per cent) and the pharmaceutical industry (21 per cent).

The issue of mental wellbeing was also highlighted with almost 80 per cent of workers admitting to sleep deprivation and one in four (24 per cent) stating that they regularly struggled financially from pay day to pay day. Furthermore, more than half or 53 per cent admitted that they experienced general anxiety “some” or “most days”

In relation to health behaviours, the results found that most workers claimed to drink within the recommended weekly alcohol limits of 17 ‘standard drinks’ for men, and 11 for women. However less than 1 per cent of men (0.66 per cent) admitted to drinking more than the recommended weekly limit.

According to Enda Campbell, Workplace Health Promotion Officer with the Irish Heart Foundation, “The World Health Organisation described the workplace is a key setting to improve health. We spend more than half our waking hours either at work or commuting back and forth. That’s why IHF’s Well@Work programme targets key behaviours that will not only be good for employees but also their employers too. Initiatives such as Workplace Wellbeing Day are helping to push the message that employers can do more to improve health.”