Truckies and the Australian transport industry: Managers’ perspectives about enablers and inhibitors to workplace health promotion

BACKGROUND: There is little published research about managers’ views on implementing and embedding workplace health promotion interventions. OBJECTIVE: To shed light on research-to-practice challenges in implementing workplace health promotion interventions in the Australian road transport industry. METHODS: In this Participatory Action Research project, managers from small-to-midsized companies in the Australian road transport industry were asked their views about enablers and barriers to implementing nutrition and physical activity interventions in their workplace. RESULTS: Managers identified practical assistance with resources, ideas, and staffing as being key enablers to implementation. Barriers included time restraints, worker age and lack of interest, and workplace issues relating to costs and resources. CONCLUSION: Manager perspectives add new insights about successful implementation of workplace health promotion. A Participatory Action Research approach allows managers to develop their own ideas for adapting interventions to suit their workplace. These findings add to a small body of knowledge of managers’ views about implementing workplace health promotion in small-to-midsized road transport companies - a relatively unexplored group. Managers highlight the importance of time constraints and worker availability when designing interventions for the road transport industry. Managers require a good understanding of the workplaces’ socio-cultural context for successful health promotion and health behaviour change.

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Truckies and health promotion: using the ANGELO framework to understand the workplace’s role

International Journal of Workplace Health Management ◽

10.1108/ijwhm-09-2017-0070 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 406-417 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marguerite C. Sendall ◽

Phil Crane ◽

Laura McCosker ◽

Marylou Fleming ◽

Herbert C. Biggs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Personal Responsibility ◽

Road Transport ◽

Truck Drivers ◽

Workplace Health ◽

Participatory Action ◽

Future Health ◽

Content Type ◽

Transport Industry

Purpose Workplaces are challenging environments which place workers at the risk of obesity. This is particularly true for Australian road transport industry workplaces. The Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework is a public health tool which can be used to conceptualise obesogenic environments. It suggests that workplaces have a variety of roles (in the physical, economic, political and sociocultural domains) in responding to obesity in transport industry workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings which explore this idea. Design/methodology/approach The project used a mixed-methods approach located within a participatory action research framework, to engage workplace managers and truck drivers in the implementation and evaluation of workplace health promotion strategies. The project involved six transport industry workplaces in Queensland, Australia. Findings This study found that transport industry workplaces perceive themselves to have an important role in addressing the physical, economic, political and sociocultural aspects of obesity, as per the ANGELO framework. However, transport industry employees – specifically, truck drivers – do not perceive workplaces to have a major role in health; rather, they consider health to be an area of personal responsibility. Practical implications Balancing the competing perceptions of truck drivers and workplace managers about the workplace’s role in health promotion is an important consideration for future health promotion activities in this hard-to-reach, at-risk population. Originality/value The use of the ANGELO framework allows the conceptualisation of obesity in a novel workplace context.

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Worksite Health Promotion for Low-Wage Workers: A Scoping Literature Review

American Journal of Health Promotion ◽

10.1177/0890117117728607 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 359-373 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Emily Stiehl ◽

Namrata Shivaprakash ◽

Esther Thatcher ◽

India J. Ornelas ◽

Shawn Kneipp ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Data Extraction ◽

The United States ◽

Worksite Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health ◽

Health Promotion Programs ◽

Scoping Literature Review ◽

Worksite Health ◽

Health Promotion Interventions

Objective: To determine: (1) What research has been done on health promotion interventions for low-wage workers and (2) what factors are associated with effective low-wage workers’ health promotion programs. Data Source: This review includes articles from PubMed and PsychINFO published in or before July 2016. Study Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria: The search yielded 130 unique articles, 35 met the inclusion criteria: (1) being conducted in the United States, (2) including an intervention or empirical data around health promotion among adult low-wage workers, and (3) measuring changes in low-wage worker health. Data Extraction: Central features of the selected studies were extracted, including the theoretical foundation; study design; health promotion intervention content and delivery format; intervention-targeted outcomes; sample characteristics; and work, occupational, and industry characteristics. Data Analysis: Consistent with a scoping review, we used a descriptive, content analysis approach to analyze extracted data. All authors agreed upon emergent themes and 2 authors independently coded data extracted from each article. Results: The results suggest that the research on low-wage workers’ health promotion is limited, but increasing, and that low-wage workers have limited access to and utilization of worksite health promotion programs. Conclusion: Workplace health promotion programs could have a positive effect on low-wage workers, but more work is needed to understand how to expand access, what drives participation, and which delivery mechanisms are most effective.

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Women‐centred workplace health promotion interventions: a systematic review

International Nursing Review ◽

10.1111/inr.12637 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

M. R. Jiménez‐Mérida ◽

M. Romero‐Saldaña ◽

R. Molina‐Luque ◽

G. Molina‐Recio ◽

A. Meneses‐Monroy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health ◽

Health Promotion Interventions

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Do workplace health-promotion interventions targeting employees with poor health reduce sick-leave probability and disability rates?

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1177/1403494820946543 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 140349482094654

Author(s):

Roy A. Nielsen ◽

Tove I. Midtsundstad

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Sick Leave ◽

Labour Market ◽

Sickness Absence ◽

Older Workers ◽

Financial Incentives ◽

Disability Pension ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health ◽

Health Promotion Interventions

Aims: This study aimed to investigate whether introducing workplace health-promotion interventions targeting employees with health problems or reduced work ability affected overall sick leave and disability risk. Methods: The study population comprised data from an establishment survey from 2010 identifying who had introduced workplace health promotion (the intervention) linked to register data on all employees and their sickness absence and disability pension uptake from 2000 through 2010. Results: Interventions had moderate effects due to varying efficacy in different parts of the labour market. Intervention success was more likely among white-collar workers (e.g. in public administration) compared to blue-collar workers (e.g. in manufacturing), probably due to variations in both organisational and technological constraints. Effects were small among men and moderate among older workers, particularly among women. Overall, disability risk reduction was accompanied by an increase in sickness absence. Sometimes, sickness absence increased in groups with no change in disability risk, suggesting that presenteeism in one group may increase absenteeism in other groups. Conclusions: Introducing workplace health-promotion interventions may prolong work careers in some labour-market segments. Financial incentives for Norwegian establishments to continue offering workplace health-promotion interventions may be improved, given the current financial model for disability pension and sickness benefits.

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Gender and evolutionary theory in workplace health promotion

Health Education Journal ◽

10.1177/0017896917722372 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 76 (8) ◽

pp. 893-905

Author(s):

Erika Björklund ◽

Jan Wright

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Evolutionary Theory ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Stone Age ◽

Workplace Health ◽

Evolutionary Theories ◽

And Gender ◽

Health Promotion Interventions ◽

Health Promotion Practice

Objective: Ideas from evolutionary theories are increasingly taken up in health promotion. This article seeks to demonstrate how such a trend has the potential to embed essentialist and limiting stereotypes of women and men in health promotion practice. Design: We draw on material gathered for a larger ethnographic study that examined how discourses of health were re-contextualised in four workplace health promotion interventions in Sweden. Method: This study provided the opportunity to investigate how ideas derived from evolutionary theories produced particular constructs of the healthy employee. A Foucauldian notion of governmentality was used to examine the rationalities, truths and techniques that informed what we have called a ‘Stone Age’ discourse as these contributed to shaping the desires, actions and beliefs of lecturers and participants in the interventions. Results: We focus on one intervention which used the Stone Age discourse as an organising idea to constitute differences in women’s and men’s health through references to women as gatherers and men as hunters, thereby positioning men as the physical, emotional and mental ideal and women as the problematic and lacking ‘other’. Conclusion: The paper concludes by discussing the implications of such ideas about health and gender for interventions aimed at changing behaviour and lifestyles.

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Exploring the use of action research to stimulate and evaluate workplace health promotion

Health Education Journal ◽

10.1177/001789699705600209 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 188-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Emma Wilkinson ◽

Elizabeth Elander ◽

Martin Woolaway

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Action Research ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Workplace Health

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Online-based intervention on LGBTI+ health promotion in Brazil: development and preliminary impacts

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckab164.875 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (Supplement_3) ◽

Author(s):

M Signorelli ◽

M Polidoro ◽

D Canavese

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Action Research ◽

Focus Groups ◽

Participatory Action Research ◽

Formal Education ◽

National Policy ◽

Course Evaluation ◽

Public Healthcare ◽

Participatory Action ◽

High Interest

Abstract Background Brazil reports public healthcare gaps concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI+) people. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online-based teaching interventions, however their use is still scarce in Brazil. We aim to describe the development and to analyze preliminary impacts of the first online-based intervention through MOOCs for LGBTI+ health promotion in Brazil. Methods We adopted mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches, based on participatory-action research: 1) to design the content and format of the MOOC, we conducted 10 focus groups during 2018 and 2019 with key stakeholders in three different Brazilian State capitals, identifying needs and challenges and linking it with guidelines of the National Policy for Comprehensive Health of LGBTI+ people; 2) based on step 1, we developed the MOOC, producing reading content, video-classes and multimedia; 3) we quantitatively analyzed, through a survey, its impact and reach after six months. Results The results showed that: a) focus groups were essentials to inform the priorities to design a tailored MOOC; b) the MOOC had 30 hours of autonomous learning activities divided into two modules, with problem-based evaluation; c) the first ten-month of the course had a total of 5,000 people enrolled with a completion rate of approximately 30%; d) 1,700 successfully completed the course; e) 582 participants joined the survey post-course evaluation and for 370 (63.6%) of them, this was the first training activity on LGBTI+ health. Conclusions Results point to a high interest in LGBTI+ health and high demand for training on this topic among health professionals. The MOOC format was successful and reliable in enabling the teaching-learning process. Key messages Participatory action research was able to inform the content of the first MOOC for LGBTI+ health in Brazil. The MOCC had high interest, and for the majority of concluding participants it was the first activity and formal education about LGBTI+ health.

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