Are you really in good health?
Brits are in denial when it comes to their health, according to new research which found that two thirds believe they are in good or excellent health, despite showing two or more risk factor that could increase their chances of getting a disease.
Although many are at risk of conditions such as heart attack or stroke due to being obese or severely overweight or refusing to give up smoking, their unrealistic perception of their health means they won’t change their lifestyle. Clinical and lifestyle risk factors include BMI (body mass index), cholesterol and blood glucose levels, blood pressure, smoking, alcohol, nutrition, exercise and stress.
Key findings relating to those who are outside the healthy range in at least two areas include: over two thirds of smokers refuse to give up, nearly two thirds are unwilling to change their eating habits and over a third are not willing to change their exercise habits.
Not only that, nearly one in five have a high BMI (body mass index) with an unhealthy waist circumference, nearly one in five have out of control blood pressure, more than one in six are not motivated to lose weight and 3% have high cholesterol levels.
According to Dr Katie Tryon, Head of Clinical Vitality at PruHealth: “Our research shows that people tend to be over-optimistic when it comes to their health and lifestyle. It is dangerous when people are in denial and believe they are healthier than they are, because they are less likely to have the motivation to change as they don’t believe they need to. Failure to nip these bad habits in the bud is putting them at serious risk of ill health as they get older. This will also have a knock on effect for British businesses as they will have to pick up the increasing cost of the absenteeism and presenteeism that will result.”
Despite believing they are in good health, nearly a third of British employees have never had a health screen and are unaware of the actual state of their health so the numbers of those outside the healthy range may be much higher. Nearly four in five have not had all three of the basic screenings that will give you a realistic understanding of your state of health - blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose.
John Anderson, UK Market Business Leader for Employee Health and Benefits at Mercer said: “The inaugural Britain’s Healthiest Company highlighted the role employers can play and are playing in encouraging their employees to make the right decisions. The data showed that whilst individuals were typically overly optimistic about how healthy they are, and ignore key risk factors, they were also open to change. 80% wanted to improve their BMI and 61% wanted to become more active. It can take very little cost for employers to help facilitate such changes within their businesses. If allowing flexibility around taking lunch hours to allow staff to attend gym classes, or providing showers so that cycling to work is more attractive leads to just a 1% increase in productivity then that’s a great investment for any business to make. We’re being approached by more and more companies looking for help generating savings from their current benefit expenditure in order to make such initiatives cost neutral and to generate greater value from their spend.”
The research showed that lifestyle behaviours are highly connected and if someone is outside the healthy range for one lifestyle factor, they are more likely to be outside the healthy range for a number of others too.
In contrast, those who undertake one healthy behaviour are more likely to undertake another. For example, those who get enough exercise are more likely to eat healthily also, and vice versa. Those who get enough exercise are 10% more likely not to smoke, 25% more likely to eat a healthy diet and 37% more likely not to smoke and eat healthily. Similarly, those who eat healthily are 25% more likely not to smoke, are 77% more likely to get enough exercise and three times more likely to do both, compared to someone who does no exercise and/or has a poor diet.
The first Britain’s Healthiest Company Report, run by PruHealth, the health insurer and Vitality wellness programme provider and Mercer, the global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments, surveyed almost 10,000 employees and is the biggest study of employee health in the UK.
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