Abstract
The workplace is notable as an optimal setting for health promotion programs. The workplace offers a natural convenient environment to support the promotion of health and wellness of workers in organizations. Adult men (18 years of age or over) in natural resource industries who work full-time spend more of their waking hours at work, away from their families due to shift work, hectic hours, and busy lifestyles. The workplace setting can therefore be harnessed to offer workers frequent and sustained exposure to effective interventions during prime hours. The purpose of this Scopus review paper is to assess the magnitude of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and depression among working men in resource-based occupations (trucking; logging; mining; oil and gas; and forestry). The paper proposes a settings-based workplace health promotion (WHP) framework to be adapted from a community-based perspective. We argue the proposed framework can be applied to effect individual worker's lifestyle behaviours, and from a socio-ecological perspective to influence organizational change and health policy. We propose WHP programs for men recognizing that gender has an important role in influencing one's lifestyle and overall health. From a socio-ecological perspective, the environment also plays a pivotal role in affecting lifestyle choices by supporting or hindering behaviours that occur in 'settings' such as family, school, workplace, or community environments. While arguing for WHP interventions, the paper recognizes the importance of upstream policy initiatives that should enhance and cultivate such interventions at organizational and community levels.
Highlights
It is recognized that people in developed countries are, in general, becoming less physically active and more poorly nourished
The objective of this paper is to argue for male workers in resource-dependent occupations, primarily trucking, logging, mining, oil and gas, and forestry, in northern British Columbia (BC) while proposing a settings-based conceptual framework to implementing workplace health promotion (WHP) in the contexts within which such men live and work
The current paper focuses on type 2 diabetes (T2D), not to negate other common disease conditions noted in northern BC, but because T2D interventions in the workplace are lacking and we believe, as literature has identified, that a WHP focus on T2D will help to treat and improve mental conditions such as depression, and try to keep people away from illicit drug use
Summary
It is recognized that people in developed countries are, in general, becoming less physically active and more poorly nourished. Physical inactivity and long bouts of sedentary behaviour have emerged as public health concerns associated with unhealthy lifestyles and obesity[18]. Estimates of the global burden of disease attributable to such unhealthy behaviours and nutrition-related risk factors report increased risk of adverse health conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D) and other chronic conditions[29,33,60]. This demonstrates that the comorbid conditions are the leading causes of millions of deaths[30,36]. The behaviours, nutritional risk factors, and the resultant chronic conditions increase labour costs through direct health care costs, and through indirect costs incurred due to productivity loss from missed work, ineffectiveness on-the-job (i.e., presenteeism), and turnover when an employee is unable to return to work because of disability or illness[15]
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