Obesity is a medical condition characterized by excess accumulation of body fats to the extent that it affects the person. Individuals are considered overweight or obese when their body mass index is above 30 kilograms per square meter (Sharma, Goodwin, & Causgrove Dunn 2018, p. 89). The level of measurements considered as overweight varies with the location of the person; an individual perceived as obese in one part of the world may not be overweight in other parts of the world. The condition is mostly caused by excess intake of food but other causes include lack of physical exercise and in some cases, it is spread genetically.
As illustrated by Rohde, Arigo, Shaw, and Stice (2018), there are some known symptoms of obesity that are commonly seen among people suffering from the disease. Such symptoms include back and joint pains, increased sweating, snoring, and breathlessness, inability to adjust to abrupt physical activity, low confidence, and self-esteem, feeling tired every now and again, feeling isolated (Zala 2018, p. 35). The evidence of this medical condition varies from a person to another, but the above mentioned are the most common. Obesity can be prevented by regular exercise, following healthy eating programs, avoiding foods and situations that lure you into excess food consumption and monitoring weight frequently.
The signs mentioned earlier associated with obesity have far-reaching effects on the patient’s life, ranging from health to social, professional and can posse financial challenges. On matters to do with health, obesity can lead to some types of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and stroke, gout, gallbladder diseases gallstones as well as breathing problems such as sleep apnea. As illustrated by Haby (2006) these conditions can be fatal if not well monitored and put under control.
Obesity may lead to financial challenges due to the health problems associated with it that need financial obligations concerning medical bills. Some of the diseases resulting from obesity are very costly to treat and manage (Gamba, Schuchter, & Seto 2015, p. 89). Obesity may force a breadwinner in a family to lose a job due to inability to perform his or her job descriptions mostly if it involves some physical operations.
Objectives
This health conditions also have effects on the productivity of an infected employee in an employment setup. The negative impact on the productivity of an employee has double cutting disadvantages that affect both the employer and the employee, and this brings us to the research questions. Therefore, the objectives of the study will include;
Research Questions
Some past studies done mainly in the United Kingdom indicate that is one of the most prevalent health issues facing the population in the country. According to Zala (2018), it is estimated that a more significant percentage, 64%, of adults in the UK are considered obese. This considerable figure has devastating effects on the economy of the country as the government spends almost 50 billion pounds annually in trying to control the menace.
Being overweight generally reduces the productivity of an individual in an organization when the employee becomes weak and cannot continue carrying out the tasks as before. Some of the health challenges associated with obesity like back pain reduce the amount of time one can sit continuously when handling company demands. Such people do take frequent breaks from their duties to help relax their aching bodies. This circumstance leads to prolonged production time that may end up delaying delivery of service or goods to the consumers. With such challenges, a company may lose consumer trust due to late production, reduced customer base and eventual reduction in revenue collection (Gamba et al. 2015, p. 9). Overweight workers may not be able to respond to an urgent company operation, whether in normal company operations or emergency safety issues like in the event of a fire outbreak.
Obesity in the country affects the productivity of an organization in several different ways. One of the ways includes time taken off by the obsess employees when they seek medical services due to the health effects of obesity. It means the productivity of the company lowers in the absence of the affected workers or the company hires other experts to replace the absent workers, but this comes at an extra cost to the employer (Zala 2018). The replacement employees need to be trained to cope with the operations of the firm, and this situation becomes worse when the affected employee is a skilled worker on whom the production process depends on.
Employers spend a lot of money when supporting their obese employees who suffer from the related diseases. As explained earlier, some of the health problems resulting from obesity such as cancer and diabetes are very costly to treat and or manage (Li et al. 2017, p. 7). In a show of solidarity and avoiding being accused of neglecting employees, employers try to support the affected workers in various ways like clearing hospital bills and general financial support. Overweight workers who undergo depression force their employers to seek specialized medical services like hiring counselors and physical trainers to encourage the victims.
If a company loses a skilled worker through death resulting from obesity-related illnesses, the losses are felt on more than one front. The production process gets a setback due to the absence of a reliable staff hence lower rate of production. Additionally, the financial loss due to the bills and farewell costs as well as the cost of paying the benefits to the family makes the process more expensive. Such situations leave organizations in poor states both financially and in its operations (Rohde, Arigo, Shaw, & Stice 2018, p. 56). The cost of replacing such an employee is sometimes high depending on the level of skills and the role initially played by the deceased.
From the above, the research tries to find out if being an obese worker is a drawback to the employer and can this health condition be used as a measurement of failure among employees. Two, the study aims at clarifying the impacts of obesity on organizational health and safety. How safe is an organization whose staffs suffer from obesity?
Research Design and Sources of Data
In this research study, the use of experimental quantitative methodology is applied to give guidance in data collection and analysis. Quantitative methodology is selected in this research due to the fact that variables under study in this research are countable (Karnani, McFerran, & Mukhopadhyay 2014, p. 333). The variables used here are the number of employees in some selected organizations within the United Kingdom studied against the number of units of outputs produced by the same organizations. The control variable is a selected organization; the number of employees and the number of units of outputs the organization produces. The selected organizations under study need to have a high number of employees with obesity and their production outputs recorded. The control variables are the outputs of a given organization with no or a small number of overweight employees. The aim of the research is to find the relationship between the number of number of obese employees in an organization and the level and efficiency on output production given all other factors held constant.
The negative impact on the productivity of an employee has double cutting disadvantages that affect both the employer and the employee, and this brings us to the research questions. Therefore, the objectives of the study will include;
Data collection being one of the most important parts of a research methodology, this research chose to use secondary data from various sources that had done the collection before. The secondary data suits this research in that the required data are already with the organizations or the relevant bodies. The selected organizations are believed to have data regarding the number of overweight staffs and also have a record on the number of units they produced over a given period of time, four years in this case (Fernández-Blanco, Prieto-Rodríguez, & Suarez-Pandiello, 2014, p. 2525). To carry out this research, the researcher needed to identify the organizations whose data were available in various secondary sources. The data is to be obtained from the website of the organizations that had been marked for research and are mentioned in the sampling section. Additionally, there was a need to identify the time when obesity started being a major threat to the organizations’ production, health, and safety.
Population
This research targets the population made of organizations in the United Kingdom with high number of employees past the obesity threshold. The study seeks to explain the challenges such organizations go through as a result of having overweight employees. Previous studies have shown that the number of obese adults in the United Kingdom is high and still on the rise. It is also indicated that this fact has been a challenge to the government who tries to curb the situation by spending billions of pounds in constructing exercise infrastructures to help people reduce weight. According to Mazzeschi (2014), the previous research studies, 64% of adults in the country are considered overweight and the government uses over 50 billion Sterling Pounds annually in trying to put the situation under control.
The method of sampling for this research is systematically sampling, consist of organizations that have obese employees. The sample in this research has a few selected organizations that have high number of overweight employees and their output productions recorded over a period of four years (Boeren 2018, p. 6). Another organization with no obese employees or lower number of them is also put under study over the same period of time. The outputs from the two categories of employers are recorded and correlated against each other. The outcome generated from these few organizations is used to make a generalized conclusion on the effects of obesity in the employment world (Erba 2018, p. 34). The number of sampled organizations is 4. Additionally, one institution that does not have overweight staff has been chosen as the control for the experiment.
The main aim of this study is to show how the number of obese employees in an organization relates to the production efficiency. A negative relationship is expected. Therefore, dependent variable is the number of units produces by the organization. In addition, Independent variable is the number of overweight employees (Nilsson. 1998, p. 78). This research would be based on qualitative analysis of other literature studies that have been done by different authors on the same aspect of obesity towards the study objectives. To conduct quantitative analysis, the production outputs of the chosen organizations have been calculated from the organizations production reports. Several tests will be conducted based on the production output including; independent t-test in four years period for each organization who employs obese workers with the control variable being the output from organizations that do not have overweight employees.
The analysis of the study will focus on qualitative study of different case studies. Focus will be given to research work on the focus of obesity and work relationship. The study also analysed the results by comparing the different results from different researchers’ aspects. Some studies often focus on conducting correlation analysis and ANOVA test for the organizations that employ obese staff in four years period and finally conducting regression analysis for chosen organizations for four years before and after employing the overweight staff. The comparison of such results will give a clear prediction, results, conclusions, and recommendations of different authors. For the research to justify the hypothesis and answer the research questions, the behaviour of the variables should indicate a negative relationship between the number of obese employees and the number of output produced over the given time frame (Harding 2008, p. 78). The findings should behave in a manner that the output from the control organization with no or few obese employees be higher than production outputs from the organizations with a bigger number of overweight employees.
The effect of Obesity on occupational health and safety
Obesity has increasingly become an emerging health issue among the workforce. Globally obesity has become one of the risk factors contributing to increased chronic diseases, and therefore in most cases, it co-occurs with other chronic symptom and diseases such as cardio-respiratory issues as well as diabetes. However, there is increasing evidence that shows a positive relationship between obesity and increasing occupational health and safety problems at the workplace (Goettler, Grosse & Sonntag 2017, p. 145). The condition, however, requires a closer examination and analysis as it is susceptible and calls for a greater understanding by the human resource people to develop effective strategies without affecting obese people in the workplace. Obesity develops some psychological issues with people, and it may affect them emotionally if it is approached in the view that it is posing some danger to the working environment. The fear of being judged by workmates is a significant concern that should be put into consideration when addressing the effect of obesity on occupational health and safety. However, it is important to note that there is no primary workplace regulation that overweight people or employees not safe as that would be regarded as discriminatory.
Health and safety regulations at the workplace, however, provide that every employer has an obligation of maintaining a healthy and safe working environment. It is, therefore, an organizational objective to maintain and manage a healthy workforce by developing evidence based programs that are aimed at obesity prevention. Different studies have consequently provided a different understanding of the effect of obesity on health and safety (Yarborough et al. 2018. p, 100). Based on their findings it is critical to say that obesity is associated with some health and safety risks. According to the American Medical Association, obesity has been classified or categorized as a multi-metabolic as well as a hormonal state of health and leads to unfavourable outcomes. Most common health risks associated with obesity include; depression, hypertension, prediabetes mellitus, diabetes mellitus, increased risk of canary heart disease, increased respiratory diseases, stroke, metabolic syndromes among other chronic health symptoms. There is also a positive relationship between obesity and increased health care and disability costs in the workplace.
Obesity is highly associated with decreased levels of productivity, quality of life and significantly contributes to increased mortality rate. The increasing spread of type 2 diabetes as also being associated with obesity or expanded body mass index and may also pose a significant threat through increased hypertension. Employees facing obesity health-related risks are emotionally affected, and this contributes to decreased productivity levels in the workplace. Kudel, Huang & Ganguly (2018) established that exposure to increased health risks leads to additional health care and disability costs and therefore increases the organizational health care expenses for its employees in their efforts to maintain a healthy workforce. Obesity among employees or workers contributes to adverse occupational related consequences. These consequences include; work absence, impairment, workplace injury as well as becoming a limitation to their productivity efforts. As a result of increased health risks, studies show that obesity has increased the rates on absenteeism in America from 10% to 16% over the last one year (Spieker & Pyzocha 2016, p. 85).
Every employee is required to be in a mental, emotional state that would help them make fair judgments related to work and therefore there is increasing evidence on how obesity contributes to increased impairment. There is an increased risk of workplace injury as a result of physical fitness challenges for obese people in the workplace. Compared to other people who are physically fit, obese people are at higher risk of exposure to work-related injury and hence affecting their safety. Obese people have been found to become easily worked out even after small tasks, and therefore in most cases, they cannot perform their duties as required in the organization. Substantial evidence also points out to the fact that obese people have increased rates of seeking for personal leave at the workplace and this is attributed to the fact that some become very lazy to keep up with the daily work schedules. These findings, therefore, support the research that there is a significant relationship between work attendance, work performance as well as increased health costs.
Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the significant occupational health risks that have been found to have a positive relationship with obesity. The diseases refer to structural damages as well as inflammations which result from injuries to nerves (Schoenfisch, Dement, Stankevitz & Ostbye 2017, p. 430). The most common of these disorders is the carpal tunnel syndrome and the osteoarthritis which have been found to be associated with an increased body mass index or obesity. This disorder affects the productivity of employees as they continually suffer from musculoskeletal pains and increase their exposure to injuries, stress at the workplace and decreased productivity. Occupational health and safety are essential for every employee as well as for the organization. Therefore, it is the responsibility of both parties to develop strategies which will lead to prevention of obesity (Shrestha, Pedisic, Neil-Sztramko, Kukkonen-Harjula & Hermans 2016, p. 350). In doing so, it is essential that they examine the ethical considerations to avoid negatively impacting the obese people through discrimination and the perspective that their conditions are affecting the overall productivity of the company adversely. Organizations can therefore develop health regulations mechanisms that will help their employees remain physically fit to avoid the risks and costs associated with obesity. Employees should also observe healthier eating habits and increase their physical activities as a strategy to kip fit and reduce the chances of becoming obese (Vallejo-Torres, Morris & Lopez-Valcarcel 2018, p. 3880,). Occupational health and safety are critical in helping every organization achieve its strategic goals and objectives, and therefore the human resource management team should develop appropriate strategies that will promote the development and maintenance of a healthy workforce to avoid the consequences associated with obesity on organizational productivity.
The United Kingdom is one of the developed economies around the world and therefore its labour market is very critical in the determination of industry productivity. As an improved economy, the number of economic activities keeps on increasing as demand for quality goods and services increase. The production activities of the economy have shifted from products based economy to a service based economy and therefore growing pressure on the labour market to improve its efficiency (Nigatu et al. 2016, p. 125). To improve labour productivity, the economy of the country will require a healthy population. The productivity of the employees in the economy has continuously been affected by the increasing rates of obesity. The impact of obesity on the global economic state is also increasing and hence indicating the prevalence and the damage resulting in obesity.
According to a health report 2018 released by the Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD), United Kingdom was found to be the most obese country in Western Europe. The report also indicated that 26.9% of the UK population had a body mass index of 30 and above. It also showed that the country recorded the highest mortality rates as a result of obesity-related chronic diseases. Such mortality rates and increased prevalence of chronic diseases such as Cancer in the country have affected the productivity of the labour market. The government or the state has increased its expenditure in the provision of health care plans for its citizens to fight the risk of chronic disease associated with obesity. Such resources could as well have been used in developing the economy of the nation. Caruso (2015) provides that, the productivity of most industries in the economy is depended on the effectiveness of the efficiency of its labour market. Labour is a critical factor of production in the country, and despite the increased use of technological innovations which were seen to be a threat to human labour requirements in many industries, the demand for labour has continued to grow with the emergence of new markets, industries and increased competition in the economy. Obesity has therefore contributed to decreased labour resources in the country which have eventually affected the production of different sectors in the marketplace.
Obesity has affected the productivity of the UK industries directly and indirectly. The direct impact of obesity has been through increased health care costs for its workforce, and therefore employees seek for higher health benefits from their employers (Cooklin, Joss, Husser & Oldenburg 2017, p. 405). Increased health care costs affect the general profitability as more resources will be required to meet the health demands of the employees. The indirect costs associated with obesity include increased absenteeism at work which affects the productivity of the industry. Every employee plays a critical role in the production activities of a given industry. Choi & Brings (2016) argue that absenteeism reduces the industry labor resource capability which is critical for production activities of the different companies and industries. The obesity Health Alliance is a collection of over 40 leading charitable organizations in the UK which are working through increased awareness creation through campaigns to tackle the complex issues of overweight and obesity in the economy.
Productivity in industry is measured through measures such as output per hour, output per job and output per worker in the whole economy and a range of industries. Using these measures, it is possible to understand how obesity has affected the production activities or productivity of sectors in the UK (Adams & White 2015, p. 160). In measuring the output per hour, the measure is determined by the number of hours spent at work by a single employee. Obesity has increased the rate of absenteeism at the workplace, and therefore this translates to decreased working hours. In essences, therefore, obesity has led to reduced output per hour for the UK industries through increased absenteeism. Measuring industry productivity through its output per worker or per employee, then it is relevant to conclude that the productivity of these industries has decreased as a result of reduced labor resources resulting from increased mortality rate in the country from obesity-related conditions (Ulijaszek & McLennan 2016, p. 399). These measures, therefore, contribute to the improved understanding that obesity despite the overall increase in employee productivity in the UK economy over as retired by the National labor statistics has negatively affected the individual industry productivity.
Obesity in most cases has become a limiting factor to improve the productivity of many industries since it has become a disability issue for many workers. It affects the general performance of employees in a trade and even become harder for some of the employees to meet their targets. As a result, the UK economy has continued to incur increasing burden to meet the increasing health demands for its obese population (Flint, Hudson & Lavallee 2016, p. 16). As a result, most resources which could be used in developing the industries have been channeled to health care and therefore negatively affecting the growth of production activities for many sectors in the economy. There is, therefore, an increasing concern in the country to develop strategies which will promote a healthy lifestyle for the UK population to avoid adverse effects of obesity on the economy. This is because according to OECD, it is projected that half of the UK men population will be obese by the year 2030 if drastic measures are not taken to curb the situation (Bray, Slater, Lewis-Smith, Bird & Sabey, 2018, p. 12). Men are the most productive in the economy as compared to women, and therefore this will negatively or worsen the productivity crisis in the industries through low labor productivity in the labor market.
Some studies have been developed to understand the relationship between various occupational hazards and obesity. Obesity has been established through some reviews to affect productivity or employees at the workplace while on the other hand limited research has been done to determine how different work environments contribute to increased obesity at the workplace or how they encourage obesity (Bell et al. 2017, p. 866). To understand the relationship between the work environment and the contribution to increased obesity then we have to follow the occupational hazards that pose a significant risk to obesity. Overweight or obesity has been related to low controlled environments, high demand work environments as well as extended working hours. Job stress has been pointed out to be one of the occupational hazards which encourage obesity at the workplace, job stress results from high demand working environments, and therefore most of the employees only spend their time and energy at work (Hege et al. p. 305, 2017). They have less time to engage in physical activities that will help to keep them fit. Long working hours have also been linked to contributing to increased obesity case sat workplace. Long working hours, therefore, serve as occupational hazards that pose a significant risk of obesity amongst employees. The long working hours limit the employees with the time they require for physical activities, and therefore their bodies continue to store more body fats leading to obesity.
Low controlled working environments have also been identified as significant occupational hazards which play a significant role in encouraging obesity. This is because there are no regulations on the health of employees and people may become comfortable because no one is monitoring their health behavior and its contribution to decreased productivity. Low controlled work environments also contribute to increased habits of comfort at the workplace and therefore does not promote active behavior which is critical for reducing obesity (Williams & Cooper 2018, p. 19). As a result, all the energy and fats accumulate in the body and increases laziness at work contributing to increased obesity among employees. The human resource management team has a responsibility of ensuring that the employees are engaged in outdoor activities and increased physical activities to promote their fitness and mental health. Lack of physical activities at the workplace as a result of spending most of their hours or 70 percent of their hours working is indeed an occupational hazard that potentially increases the chances of employees becoming obese.
Other research works have also provided evidence that shift working environments contribute to employee obesity or instead there is a positive relationship between work shit and employee obesity. To identify the link, a meta-analysis was conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The focus of the meta-analysis was to evaluate the association between shift work patterns and the risk of a specific type of obesity. The analysis was conducted randomly from different organizations that have different shift work patterns and especially on rotating shift work patterns as well as those who permanently work during night shifts.
In their findings they were able to establish that shift workers from different organizations had a higher frequency or rate of developing abdominal obesity compared to other types of obesity (Barton, p. 21, 2017). The findings of their analysis also established that the permanent night shift workers demonstrated a higher risk of 29% of abdominal obesity as compared to the rotating shift workers. The Meta-analysis, therefore, provided an understanding that indeed there is a positive relationship between obesity and shift work patterns. The results confirmed the increased risk of night shift work for the development of obesity and overweight among the employees. It was therefore recommended that the management or the human resource team in any organization that works through shift pattern should develop a modification strategy of the working schedules and especially for the employees who permanently work at night. This will play a critical role in reducing the occupational risk factors to overweight and help in improving the health standards of the employees.
The above findings, therefore, provide an understanding that obesity may result from different occupational hazards emanating from the working environments. It is therefore essential to develop effective strategies to control these occupational hazards from impacting the health of an employee in the organization. The responsibility of the human resource departments is involvement in the management of employee welfare to take the necessary steps and develop appropriate strategies to mitigate the risk of obesity among its employees or workforce (Kawai, Kawai, Wollan & Yawn 2017, p. 660). Promoting physical activities through the free meeting is very helpful in improving not only the physical fitness of the employees but also the overall mental health and fitness that encourage healthy behavior. However, this will require a collective effort of both the organization through the human resource management team and the willingness of the organization workforce to participate in such programs.
Associated Impact of Obesity and body weight on productivity
In different studies, it is evident that obesity is a health concern not only in the UK but across the globe. According to Sharma et al. (2018), obesity has a significant positive association with employees’ absenteeism hence considered at work loss days. In the review on the number of hours employees take for exercise in Coca-Cola company in the UK market, Spieker and Pyzocha (2016) report that the body distribution of the body fats has a high direct risk association with high yearly sick leave cases as well as long spells of absenteeism in the UK business industry. Within the company, the surveyed employees had high BMI, an aspect that led to the increase of other associated health risks, illnesses and disabilities that caused short-term absences, as well as increased cost of healthcare than workers with low BMI. The study also reported that the obese workers were 1.7 times likely to cause high level of absenteeism and 1.6 times more possibility of reporting absenteeism. Ulijaszek and McLennan (2016) also reported that obese employees are often incurring greater productivity losses than the non-obese individuals. The same study denotes that the BMI of workers in terms of its classification predicts assignment of high cost of healthcare as well as high absence from duty, an aspect that leads to low productivity or every organization than the non-obese employees. In most of the studies and analysis, it was evident that obesity has a direct association with high cost of healthcare than are the smokers, drinkers, as well as poverty. However, it is vital to realize that there is no simple causal link between the characteristics and obesity. The relationship are rather complex and not much explained.
According to Zala (2018), little research has been done with the aim of evaluating how occupational status affects the working environments. In most cases, the adoption of BMI is to represent the level of the body fat and has been used by many researchers in evaluating the impact of work on obesity. Twelve cross-sectional studies were identified that used some measures of job stress in testing for the association with BMI. The researchers adopted demand control model in 8 of the studies as well as other measures evaluating the job stress in the other four. However, not any of the twelve used the effort-reward imbalance model. In the results, four of the studies that adopted the demand-control model had a positive statistical significance in relationship with BMI while the remaining four had no association. The other studies that used different measures of job strain had a positive statistical significance in relation to the BMI. However, the studies had no full control on the hours spent at work, physical activity, or work shift.
In their study, Sharma, Goodwin, & Causgrove Dunn (2018) also studied the relationship between BMI and social working conditions. While analyzing statistical health data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) in the UK, the study showed that men were working 35 hours more a week while having odds of ratio 1.4 for being obese. The study associated the long working hours with overweight in the female gender. An increase in body weight was also reported among shift workers in UK while the shift work has an association with BMI among men and women in the middle age within different working environments.
The relationship between BMI and non-physical work relationship have as well been investigated. In a large population studied, unemployment had a positive association with BMI for both women and men. However, the association was stronger for women with long histories of unemployment. In a cohort of 1455, UK women between the age of 18 to 24, obesity and overweight were associated with low educational and occupational status as well as unemployment status. Increased body weight was also reported over a period of 12 years among shift workers in some organizations. In their study, Lei et al. (2017) also hypothesized three different designs showing how work can facilitate the weight gain, overtime, long hours of work, shift work can could result in fatigue as well as inhibiting behaviors preventing both abdominal fat accumulation and weight gain. From the study, employed individuals in the UK spend most of their time working while the demand and pressure of work may affect their activity pattern and heating habits hence leading to obesity and overweight. Yarborough et al. (2018) also supports the assertion with a prove that it also leads to illness and occupational injury. The study reports that obesity has a direct effect on work opportunity as well as modify the relationship between health outcome and work place exposure. However, he recommends more studies as the nature of most of the interactions is not well understood or studied. At the same time, there were questions on the following aspect, areas that are evident as opportunities for future research;
While examining the nexus obesity, injury and occupational diseases, it was clear that obesity and risks related to the working environment have a direct relationship. Therefore, obesity may thus represent additional risk factors or predisposing factor to certain work related illnesses and workplace exposure. The study also found that there is a need for better understanding of the relationship between work and obesity as it can help in the identification of various interventions that needs to be addressed not only obesity but other related workplace injuries. Vallejo-Torres, Morris, and Lopez-Valcarcel (2018) also found that obesity commonly arises from complex biological and social phenomena but is also perceived as a result of an individual behavior. Therefore, strategies of combining protection of occupational risks as well as programs encouraging individual change of diminishing health risks from obesity warrants considerations. Such efforts can thus results into blames for individual workers on their obesity hence distracting them from the contribution of the workplace to injury. Such attention will also shift the focus of an individual from essential cultural, environmental, and social causes of obesity interventions.
Based on the secondary sources analyzed, suggesting various ways of viewing interrelationship of obesity, work, and related infections is easier as summarized in figure 1. As the models primarily focus on the three elements, every element is a subject to various cultural, social, and working environment influence. In such cases, models depicts work as a risk factor due to its organization and nature hence the exposure that is likely to occur in the working process.
Figure 1: Conceptual Model of interpretation (Adopted from Vallejo-Torres et al. 2018)
In the first model A, exposure in the workplace leads to occupational health complications, a relationship that may be modified by weight gain or obesity to ensure the risk is lesser or greater in the obese employees. The second Model B, is depicting 2 possibly addictive and independent pathways to illnesses. At this point, obesity takes the role of the independent risk factor in one pathway or the other, a workplace exposure. Model C combines models A and B taking work as the source origin of adverse environmental exposure and contributor to overweight and obesity. Each factor or the combination results into a modified disease risk. In the other hand, model D indicates that the exposure of the workplace can be an effect modifier if an obesity-illness relationship. Model E shows how obesity can be the causing agent of a certain disease. In other words, having a particular disease like obesity may increase the risk of a worker to attract another disease. However, the models still require more validation and testing as they are a representation of heuristic functions.
The occurrence of obesity among workers comes with related occupational consequences such as impairment, workplace injury, limitation, and work absence as well as increased disability costs on healthcare. Yarborough et al. (2018) denote that the cost of medication and drugs increased $119.7 between a BMI of 26 and 46kg/m2 and 82.7/BMI unit was increasing irrespective of the gender and age. The same study indicated that the estimated mean yearly per capita expenses in healthcare attributed to obesity are $1160 for men while women have $1525. Employees who were obese had more than double work limitations compared to those of normal weight. It was also found that obesity has a direct association with increased absenteeism among UK workers costing the nation an estimated $8.65 billion annually. This accounts for 6.5% to 12.7% on the total cost in absenteeism in the working environment within UK. Obesity in association with increased working days absenteeism, which is 1.2 to 1.6 extra working days missed yearly compared with employees with normal weight. In the same comparison, employees with normal BMI depicted for a trend of increased spending in healthcare.
Williams and Cooper (2018) also associate obesity and overweight with loss of on job productivity for employees. While analyzing the health national survey results from the NHS department, it is found out that 9696 employees who are obese had more than double work limitations compared to workers with normal weight. Employees with obesity were having 6.9% work limitation prevalence verses 4.0% among workers having normal weight. BMI is also found out to have both direct and indirect association with several medical conditions among employees including memory exhaustion that in term affects the productivity of the organization.
Discussion and Conclusions and Recommendations
Discussion
The primary finding of this study shows that employees who are obese tend to have a higher risk of injury in the workplace as compared to their workmates whose body weights are in the normal range. As Tustin et al., (2018) points out, this is attributable to the fact that obese individuals are predisposed to a variety of other health conditions such as respiratory infections, diabetes, heart diseases and other organ complications. There are a number of pathways by which obesity enhances the risk of occupational hazard. Firstly as Schulte et al., (2012) notes, sleep apnea, tiredness and sleepiness which are common in obese people make them prone to injury since their efficiency and concentration in the workplace is hampered. Secondly, having a lot of excess weight and body fat affect ones posture and gait at work (Hruby et al., 2016, p. 1658). Depending on the nature of the job that the person does, this could increase the risk they face to get hurt. This is well corroborated by the fact that most occupational injuries reported in the workplace revolved around dislocations and fractures owing to the fact that obesity is linked to the increased susceptibility to sliding, slipping stumbling or falling. Thirdly, most people who are obese depend on prescription drugs for survival (Yvonne & Hope 2018, p. 41). This use of these prescription drugs while on duty must certainly have a negative effect on the quality of work and concentration hence predisposing one to injury. Another critical finding shows that the risk for obesity related injury in the workplace is elevated among women. This owes to the fact that women generally tend not to engage in activities they demand a lot of physical engagement. This observation is consistent with the observable health effects of obesity such as; problems of posture, walking and balance, sleepiness, loss of neural sensitivity and fatigue which are also elevated in women as compared to men (Crider, Maples & Gohlke 2014, p. 17). However, the association between obesity and workplace injury is not prominent among younger workers. From the results of this study, employers have 2 avenues by which they could help to bring down the burden of obesity. Firstly as suggested by Poulsen et al. (2014) they should look into how obesity is connected to other factors that predispose to injury in the workplace. To this end it follows that employers must invest in the expansion of their initiatives for awareness in the workforce. Obesity may have a negative impact on the ability of a person to respond to an occupational hazard. These include hazards such as strain in the respiratory system, high altitude sickness, heat stroke, physiological strain and decompression sickness. As corroborated from data in other studies, most heat strokes have been attributed to obesity. While heat strokes arising from obesity are generally not common, heat exhaustion tends to occur more frequently (Allman-Farinelli et al., 2020, p. 17). This is attributable to the fact that the high amounts of fat in the obese individual impair the process of the exchange of heat between the body and the external environment (Sun et al., 2018, p 8). As a direct consequence, it is recommended that men who are obese ought not to be assigned to very hot environment. This is partly the reason why the fact that there are not many studies that have been conducted to this end is in fact frustrating. From the foregoing, obesity in the workplace does increase the risk to occupational injury which raises the cost for compensation claims for the same. In Finland for instance, all employers are required by law to take a compensation policy for the occupational injury for all their employees (Nigatu et al., 2015, p. 84). A look at the studies done reveals that obesity is associated with the increased risk of bone dislocations, fractures, back injuries, sprains, and injury to the lower extremities. Work and being overweight have been associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality (You & Henneberg 2018, p. 11). It also has the overall effect of increasing the cost of medical care for the individual, just as it also causes an increased government spending given the need for more finances to be allocated towards the treatment of the same.
Conclusions
While the knowledge base is steadily expanding, there is eminent need for a more intensive and extensive examination of the interaction between workplace hazards and diseases that may be perceived as genetic or personal such as obesity. From the foregoing, one logical conclusion must be made; the development that have occurred in technology leading to the innovation of labor saving devices, automations and robots have led to less need for physical activity among employees world over but especially in developed countries. The other challenge is the increased availability and accessibility to fast food outlets which serve energy dense foods to workers who are already not physically active owing to the nature of work they do. This does not auger well with the biological adaptation of the human organ systems to store the excess fats. From the analysis, it is clear that obesity is a drawback to productivity in various organizations and can this health platform be used as a benchmark for the measurement of failure in an organization or an individual.
As Peart & de Leon Siantz (2017) submit Failing to see obesity for what it is (an evolutionary response) rather than a moral weakness blinds us from the general occupational, environmental as well as genetic factors that determine the development of obesity. This explains why it is very necessary for all to relook at the exposures to hazards that occur in the workplace so that a better understanding of the relationship between obesity and work is established. As presented in this paper, obesity is a risk factor that predisposes one to injury or disease in the working environment. If that is the case then it follows that the result of occupational exposure ought to be considered in the light of features that could have a variety of interpretations. The framework that this paper presents on the association between obesity and occupational hazard if implemented will be instrumental in the mitigation of two major public health issues; occupational hazards and obesity. It also provides a roadmap for confronting society with knowledge as well as filling the existing knowledge gaps through research and surveys as are highlighted in the recommendation section. For this to be achieved effective collaboration between different stakeholders will be necessary. Therefore, obesity has a great negative significance on the health and safety of the organization.
This section of the paper highlights the shortcomings that may arise from the scope of the study and the nature in which it was done. While the quality and strength of the study is fairly reasonable, it is noteworthy that in many instances the causative factors for injury in the workplace most often are more than one at a time. It is very highly likely that the environment away from ones workplace, state of mental health, as well as physical health may also play a major role in predisposing someone to occupational injury. This aspect poses an inherent challenge to studies of this nature. Notably again, in a study as this, there is a likelihood of confounding owing to variables that are unobservable at the time of study. Although the study took consideration of multiplicity of covariates and was adjusted accordingly, factors such as safety education and risk taking are still pertinent.
This section of the paper looks at the scope of the research and seeks to make suggestions as to what could be done in the future. These could be in the form of suggestions for scholarly research in the future of just suggestions for changes that could yield better results and sometimes both. The general expectation is that employers are supposed to be held to account for the prevention of morbidity and mortality that is related to work while at the same time the workers themselves are supposed to watch against becoming overweight and obese ultimately. One of the identifiable gaps in research is the fact that most scholars have not considered both risks are likely interrelated. There is need for scholars to delve deep into this and prove the interrelation or lack thereof. Furthermore studies are also necessary in order to establish the nature, degree and temporality or otherwise of the relationship between occupational hazard and mortality.
More research is required to seek out the ways in which the work environment contributes to the development of obesity because as found out in the literature review section the existing information on the same is scanty and unreliable. Another new area for research would be for scholars to look into the ways in which obesity contributes to the risk of occupational hazards or injuries and diseases in the workplace. Such research is the only way that the government would be informed as to how much resources ought to be allocated towards mitigating the problem. This way the state can begin to make its budgetary allocations on mitigating obesity from a point of information. As for changes that would yield better results, it is necessary that employee welfare identifies strategies that tackle occupation related risk factors for obesity. In the execution of such strategies caution will be necessary so as not to be insensitive in terms of language or prejudice. Similarly, they should take care not to apportion causality or propagate the perceptions and misconceptions of workers and employers on people who are overweight.
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