No smoking day - Wednesday 13th March

It's that time of year when although the clocks haven't yet sprung forward for spring and summer, it is getting appreciably lighter by the day, and the almost oppressive darkness of winter is thankfully behind us for another year.

So what better time to think about various health and wellbeing matters such as getting more exercise, eating the right healthy foods and aiming to get to the right weight - and also giving up smoking (for those among us who smoke)?

Today is No Smoking Day, and given that it falls on a working day, we thought we'd look today at how smoking has changed during the working day - as well as health in general - since the first no smoking day 30 years ago.

Back in the olden days, people had far more opportunities to smoke during the average 24 hour period. It didn't matter if you were on a bus or train, in a cafe or restaurant or at work - there would have been someplace to smoke, and in a lot of cases it didn't even have to be a smoking area as many places allowed smoking no matter where you were sitting.

Attitudes to health (and mental health) have changed greatly over the years and the workplace has seen many changes too - with continued focus on health and safety legislation as well as far greater use of workplace wellbeing policies and health insurance for business from corporate to small and medium business types - often offered as a staff benefit.

It's interesting just how far we've come over the past three decades - and of course the number of smokers is down from what it was all that time ago. Although it is difficult to predict how that one is going to change over time - we're now down to only a fifth of the population smoking, but it would be likely that among them are the most addicted, the least likely to give up - so decline rates may slow.

The health of the nation

There are so many health stories in the media that it would simply be impossible to keep up with them on a a daily basis. Even using news aggregators and bookmarking all your favourite newspaper sites' health news pages, there's a mountain of health stories being published every single day.

One upshot of this is that many of us need to quickly select the stories that interest us and disregard the other 3 or 4 thousand articles available that day.

Sometimes this is actually easier than it seems - for instance there may be 150 articles about a new medical breakthrough, but little would be gained from reading every story on it. Usually, in fact, you can get the gist from scanning one broadsheet article, or a more detailed insight by reading and absorbing the same article in full.

But for the less health-centred reader - the general reader - what happens is that the headlines quite naturally grab the attention, and as such give the impression that things are a certain way. For instance, often you'd be forgiven for thinking that the UK isn't in a great state, healthwise - what with all the column inches on obesity and other health challenges.

It is of course true that the UK like many western nations has its problems with the prevalence of obesity. But on the whole it should also be remembered (and celebrated) that we've come a long way over the years in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, and so on.

My suggestion would be that we have a yearly health of the nation survey based around 15 - 20 key measurement points, so that we get a more 360 degree view of the nation's health rather than being overly focussed on the negatives.

Mental health update: stress survey

There were quite a lot of news stories about stress levels in the UK last year. And one of the most significant ones was the news that hospital admissions for stress related ilnesses had risen sharply year on year - by 7%.

One of the possible reasons for this that has been suggested in the recession. This could well be the case for such a noticeable rise, but on the other hand it's possible that as we become more open about mental health, people generally will be more willing to seek a diagnosis if they feel affected by stress.

Companies these days are also embracing mental health promotion more and more, as part of their workplace wellbeing programmes - alongside offering things like EAPs and business health care insurance. It's a very different world from the times when mental health at work simply wasn't a matter that was ever discussed.

But while so much good work is being done in terms of changing attitudes and drawing up wellbeing policies for the workplace, are we seeing the benefits yet in terms of stress levels?

This week yet another survey was published on the subject of stress, and the results are interesting. This one was  a little bit different in that the volunteers for the study actually had their body temperature recorded at different pints throughout the week. Apparently when you're stressed, your temperature increases a bit. Interestingly, Wednesday was found to be the least stressful day of the week, while Friday scored quite highly - this is believed to be down to the fact that on Fridays many of us have to get the decks cleared before the two day weekend break.

A spokesman for the survey's author said that many people in the UK are working under "dangerous" levels of stress and highlighted the stress reduction value of ensuring employees getting a full lunch break and maybe even doing exercises in the office.

The future of healthcare

If we compare the healthcare of today with its previous self of, say, 100 years ago, there is a mountain of difference between them.

Just think of some of the breakthroughs we've seen over the last century - from heart transplantation to the discovery of penicillin, we haven't half come a long way. And healthcare has of course benefited massively from all these scientific and medical advances. In fact, to someone from a hundred years ago, today's hospital and many of the various treatments and operations it carries out would seem miraculous.

But where will we be 100 years from now? Hopefully things  like MRSA will have been consigned to the history e-books. Maybe, just maybe, some of the diseases that today are widespread could be a thing of the past, too.

Some of today's technologies - ones that aren't currently used in health services - could also be developed to play a part in patient treatment. Imagine a practitioner being able to three dimensionally print drugs for a patient. This may seem far-fetched but in fact this process is already being pioneered.

And how will hospitals look in the future - it's difficult not to imagine them being more like hotels in many respects, as treatments become less invasive and hospital stays shorter, it's possible to envisage a trip to the hospital - if not actually fun, then definitely something more pleasant than the bleachy and spartan post-Victorian hospitals of the early 20th century.

Long term sickness absence - the business view

Long term sickness absence is something that many businesses have to deal with as a fact of life. It can happen for many  reasons, and in some cases people fall out of work and onto benefits as a result. However, it's been proven by studies that work is in general good for our physical and mental health - so sometimes there are situations where people can return to work but with an altered work set up to accommodate for their condition. This could include things like a reduced schedule or part time hours, or if the person's job involves physical work that they're currently unable to carry out due to their illness, they can sometimes be given work within the organisation that doesn't involve any lifting or carrying - perhaps completing administration or desk oriented work instead.

A recent survey - reported in the news this week - shows that only about half of employers feel that they're 'well equipped' to deal with long term sickness absence. Anyone looking to find out some of the basics regarding sickness absence can go to the Health & Safety Executive website http://www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence/index.htm and there's also info available there on the fit note.

Last year an independent Sickness Absence Review - Health At Work - was announced by the government to take a look at how the system can be improved, and ways in which it currently fails some people. There is extensive info on the review available at the Department of Work and pensions (DWP) website here.

Small business health insurance is available from providers such as AXA PPP healthcare business cover and policies for organisations are affordable and easy to manage - you can choose the level of cover for employees so that you're not needing to pay for anything that you don't require. Employee assistance programmes are another way to help ensure your business is doing all it can to minimise sickness absence.

Data and workplace wellbeing

There's a very interesting article over at Personnel Today that I'd like to direct your attention to today. the post is from 2012 (but the topic is just as relevant in 2013...)

Entitled Using Data To Direct Employee Wellbeing Initiatives, the article centres on essentially what is the return on investment for companies who spend money on  staff health and wellbeing. It makes perfect sense, really - if the oft quoted line about happy and healthy staff being true, then it's going to show up in various data from staff satisfaction studies to productivity rates and sickness absence levels. Of course, if there was a case they don't it's not necessarily the case that the line about happy and healthy staff being inaccurate - it could well be that the measures brought about and invested in to improve it were in some way ineffective.

In fact, the link - according to Personnel Today's report - has been proven in various studies, and the gains in productivity 'far outweigh' the investment. of course, for bigger businesses the challenge is how to implement and manage the measuring of all this data. the article goes into thorough detail about all this, taking in things like gathering, tracking and aggregating the data.

When you think about health and wellbeing and its relation to productivity, it all seems so simple and common sense. But the measuring of it might be that little bit more complex. However, as we move into an age of informatics, it could well be that more and more organisations will become very quickly convinced that health, wellbeing and employee engagement is the direction in which to travel to stay competitive. And if it also has an effect on the bottom line, the case becomes one that few will want to refuse.

The dental life

In many ways, our dental record - if we look back on it - is a bit like going back through time.

Think back to the time that you went for your first dental appointment as a child, and you may remember the dentist's surgery - hopefully - as an interesting new place to be. Then on through the school years - braces for some, cavities for others. Plaque disclosing tablets to show us just how important it is to brush the teeth. Bubblegum-flavoured fluoride toothpaste, and so on.

Then when you become an adult the whole dental thing is much less of a novelty and fades slightly from our consciousness. Brushing the teeth and going for the dental checkup are done almost on autopilot. It's only when something unexpected happens that we're jolted back into remembering just how important a dental surgery visit can be. Whether it's root canal treatment, difficulty with a wisdom tooth, or getting a cap replaced - a job well done (and without too much discomfort in the chair) is a reminder of how valuable the dentist's work is.

Of course, it comes at a price - a bit of toothache leading to a checkup can in many cases then lead on to hundreds of pounds worth of work needing done. And often it's work that - however necessary, becomes an unforeseen and immediate expense. Getting cover from a dental insurance UK provider is a good way of helping make sure that unexpected dental bills won't be a problem.

And if you've not been to the dentist in a while, you might be surprised at just how reassuringly modern and unthreatening they look these days!