Statistics

• 25%
  A longitudinal study that was conducted from 1988 to 2000 in fact showed that obesity was associated with a 25% higher chance of workplace injury.
• 200%
  Normal weight employees cost on average $3830 per year in covered medical, sick day, short-term disability, and workers' compensation claims combined; morbidly obese employees cost more than twice that amount, or $8067, in 2011 dollars.
• 66%
  Employees with an unhealthy diet have been found to have a 66% increased risk of lower productivity than those who ate a healthy diet. Employees who exercised rarely had a 50% increased risk of lower productivity than those who exercised regularly. Employees who smoked had a 28% higher risk of lower productivity than non-smokers. When employers provide support for eating healthier, getting in more exercise and becoming emotionally healthy, employees respond positively with higher productivity.
• 30.6%
  Office workers from different organisations who have been surveyed cited that the most common nutrition barriers are “unhealthy food available in the office” (30.6%) and “lack of healthy options near office” (28.8%).
• A 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) review of interventions to improve diet and exercise found multi-component interventions were effective that:
  - provide healthy food and beverages at the workplace
  - provide space for fitness or encourage stair use
  - involve the family
  - provide individual behaviour-change strategies

1. Stat1 (25%) - Lin TC, Verma SK, Courtney TK (2013). Does obesity contribute to non-fatal occupational inury? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Scandenavian Journla of Work, Environment and Health.
2. Stat2 (200%) - Van Nuys K, Globe D, Ng-Mak D, Cheung H, Sullivan J, Goldman D (2014). The assocation between employee obestiy and employer costs: evidence from a panel of U.S. employers. Am J Health Promot.
3. Stat3 (66%) - Merrill R, Aldana S, Pope J, Anderson D, Coberley C, Whitmer W, HERO Research Subcommittee (2012). Presenteeism according to healthy behaviours, physical health and work environment. Population Health Management.
4. Stat4 (30.6%) - Blackwood K, Jancey J, Howat P, Ledger M, Lee A (2012). Office-based physical activity and nutrition intervention: Barriers, enablers and preferred strategies for workplace obesity prevention, Perth Western Australia. Prev Chronic Dis.