1. The Employers Network Forum 2: Physical Activity and Workplace Health
Dr Suzanne Wood
Consultant in Public Health
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team
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2. Welcome
The Cardiff and Vale Employers Network aims to support organisations to promote and protect employee health and wellbeing as an integral part of their business practice.
Welcome to the second forum of the Cardiff and Vale Employers Network focusing on ‘Physical Activity and Workplace Health’.
For those of you who are new to the Employers Network, the aim of the network is to support organisations to promote and protect employee health and wellbeing as an integral part of their business practice.
The purpose is to engage with organisations across Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan from all sectors and of all sizes, through a series of health related workshops, exploring how to implement health improvement initiatives targeted at staff within the workplace.
Within these workshops we aim to provide evidence based examples of best practice, and where possible utilise existing best practice from Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan, and explore how you can implement them within your own workplace.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

3. Why the workplace? As a setting, the workplace:
Provides access to a stable population of adults;
Provides the opportunity to invest in long term health improvement initiatives targeted at staff.
Workplace settings have a unique potential to influence health positively (Black 2008; WHO 2008). Full-time employees spend about a third of their waking hours in work. They eat at work, they travel to, from and during work and they socialise in and through work. Thus, there is potential for worksites to promote and support the health of workforces through the development of physical environments, social supports, time and financial incentives and pro-health cultures (Caan 2006).
The working environment offers a unique opportunity to engage with a stable population of adults and invest long term commitment into promoting and protecting the health and wellbeing of staff, and assist them to live long, happy, healthy lives.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

4. Healthy workplaces Improved employee health and wellbeing
Improved rates of attendance
Increased organisational productivity
Just to re-cap from the presentation at the first Forum, the benefits for employers working towards developing healthy workplaces is clear through research, which suggests that a focus on primary prevention of illness by implementing activities that promote and protect the health and wellbeing of staff will lead to an improvement in staff health and wellbeing, improved rates of attendance, all leading to increased organisational productivity.
Therefore health and wellbeing initiatives targeted at staff within the workplace should be a priority for all employers.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

5. Physical Activity and Workplace Health
Forum 2
Physical Activity and Workplace Health
For the second forum of the Employers Network, today we’ll explore an area of health and wellbeing that has the potential to positively effect both our physical and mental health and wellbeing – physical activity.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

6. The importance of physical activity
People who have a physically active lifestyle
have approximately 50 per cent less risk of
developing:
Coronary heart disease (CHD);
Stroke;
Type 2 diabetes
compared to people living sedentary lifestyles (1).
Physical activity contributes significantly to overall well being and is essential for good health.
People who have a physically active lifestyle have approximately 50 per cent less risk of developing major health complications such as coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and type 2 diabetes compared to those who have a sedentary lifestyle.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

7. The importance of physical activity
Regular physical activity is also associated with:
A reduced risk of:
- obesity;
- osteoporosis;
- colon cancer;
Improved mental health;
Increased functional capacity in older adults;
A reduced risk of premature death by about per cent (1)
Leading a physically active lifestyle is known to have numerous other health benefits including:
A reduced risk of
Obesity
Osteoporosis
Colon cancer
Improved mental health
A reduced risk of premature death by about per cent.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

8. Recommended guidelines
Working age adults should:
Aim to be active daily;
Undertake moderate intensity physical activity that adds up to at least 150 minutes (2 ½ hours) over a week.
This can be done in bouts of ten minutes or longer (comparable benefits can be achieved through 75 minutes of vigorous activity spread throughout the week, or combinations of moderate and vigorous activity);
Undertake activity to improve muscle strength on at least two days of the week;
Minimise the time spent in sedentary positions for extended periods of time (2).
In 2011 the Department of Health issued new guidelines for different ages based on up to date research on health benefits of physical activity which were accepted in Wales and Scotland.
The guidelines for working age adults (19-64 years old) focus on the total amount of physical activity throughout the week as opposed to the 5x30 guidance previously promoted.
The updated guidelines still recommend for people to aim to be active daily, but the key message is to undertake moderate intensity physical activity (eg brisk walking or cycling) that adds up to at least 150 minutes (2 ½ hours) over a week. This can be done in bouts of 10 minutes or more.
Comparable benefits can be achieved by undertaking 75 minutes of vigorous activity (eg running or sports, such as swimming / football) throughout the week.
Additionally, working age adults should undertake activity to improve muscle strength (exercise with weights / carrying moving heavy goods such as groceries) on at least two days of the week.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

9. The current situation Levels of activity:
29% of adults in Wales reported undertaking at least 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity on 5 or more days in the previous week
- 36% of men and 23% of women (3)
Reasons for not being active:
31% of Welsh respondents were too busy with work
55% stated they would exercise more regularly if they could fit it in with their daily routine (4)
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

10. The impact of inactivity
Higher risk of:
Obesity
Stroke
Coronary heart disease
Type 2 diabetes
Osteoporosis
Colon cancer
Over the last 20 – 30 years there has been a decrease of physical activity as part of daily routine, though there has been a small increase in the proportion of people taking part in physical activity for leisure.
The impact of inactivity on health is a reversal of the benefits of being active. People who are inactive face a higher risk of
Becoming obese
Stroke
CHD
Type 2 diabetes
Osteoporosis
Colon cancer
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

11. The impact of inactivity on CHD
The health impact of inactivity on CHD is
comparable to that of smoking and almost
as great as high cholesterol levels (1)
If we take a closer look at one of those diseases which people who are inactive are at a higher risk of developing – Coronary heart disease, one of the major causes of mortality in the western world – the health impact of inactivity on CHD is comparable to that of smoking and almost a great as high cholesterol levels.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

12. The role of employers
You have the opportunity to positively influence the levels of physical activity of your employees and improve and protect their physical and mental wellbeing.
So having quickly explored some of the key points around physical activity, we will now turn the focus of the afternoon on to you as organisations and what you can do to help improve the situation.
There are opportunities for organisations to proactively promote and protect the health and wellbeing of employees by supporting the development of physical activity opportunities for staff.
Today, we will hear a series of presentations from speakers representing a variety of organisations within Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan, and we will have the opportunity within the workshops to discuss how you can incorporate some of the work around promoting and protecting physical and mental health and wellbeing of staff in your organisation through physical activity opportunities.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

13. References Insert name of presentation on Master Slide
1 Public Health Wales (2012). Physical activity. Last accessed on 27th June, 2013 at: 2 Department of Health (2011). Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults (19-64 years). Last accessed on 27th June, 2013 at: 6/dh_ pdf.pdf 3 Welsh Government (2013). Welsh Health Survey: Initial Headline Results. Last accessed on 27th June, 2013 at: headline-results-en.pdf 4 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (2009). Last accessed on 27th June, 2013 at: through-insufficient-exercise-new-survey
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14. Thank you Dr Suzanne Wood Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team
Thank you for listening. We hope you’ll get a lot out of the afternoon and go back to your organisations with ideas of how you can support employees to build physical activity into their lives.
We will now hear the first presentation which will focus on Active Travel by Mala Bhardwa from Sustrans.
Dr Suzanne Wood
Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team