Foundation 49 - Men's Health

Driving productivity with healthy male employees

Introducing the Decades of Life program by Foundation 49

As an employer, are you aware of the effect of poor health on your employees and its impact on workplace productivity?

Foundation 49 can come into your workplace and offer a cost-effective, efficient and comprehensive health check for each male employee.

Did you know?

Employers who introduce health promotion to their workplaces can:

• Reduce employee health risks by up to 56 per cent at a rate of 10 per cent each year
• Significantly reduce the cost of absenteeism. Absenteeism is estimated to cost Australian employers 2% of GDP based on an absence rate of 2.5%.
• Address the obesity epidemic. Some 3.2 million Australians are clinically obese and are costing $3.8 billion in lost productivity and direct health costs. A significant proportion are men.

Why the fuss?

Some men’s health stats:

More than five men die prematurely each hour in Australia from potentially preventable conditions

Every year more than 470,000 years of life are lost to the male population due to premature death – from heart disease, cancer, accidents, suicide, alcoholism, obesity and smoking

The suicide rate is four times higher for men than women

Men live, on average, six years less than women

Nearly two thirds of men are overweight – increasing their chances of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer

Why assess the health of men working for you?

No employer can afford to ignore the health of Australia’s 5.4 million working men – a quarter of the country’s population.

Imagine the impact on Australian communities – on workplaces, wives, children and friends – if men could live longer and healthier lives.

A recent Wesley Corporate Health Study on health in the Australian workplace has found:

the average worker has almost three health 'risks' meaning they are more likely to suffer heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and depression. They are up to 7 per cent less productive because of these risks. Interestingly, the average US worker has just 2.1 risks.

The study estimated the effect on the Australian economy, from lost productivity due to ill health, was $34.8 billion per annum or 4.2 per cent of GDP.

But wait. There’s good news!

These health risks can be reduced by workplace health checks and education strategies. Employers, who introduce health promotion to their workplaces, can reduce their employees' health risk factors by up to 56 per cent, according to the Wesley study.

So how could you achieve this?

By offering:

• annual health and wellness checks of all employees to identify health risks
• educational materials and referrals to improve employees health.

The Decades of Life program

Foundation 49's unique Decades of Life health assessment program takes the health care to the worker – rather than hope men will take themselves off to their GPs for annual health checks. What better way to reach Australian men than at work?

We help identify risks and early warning signs for cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental and sexual health problems.

The program allows an initial age-specific health assessment, and then a more detailed assessment, should warning signs be identified.

According to the man's individual health status and age, the program suggests changes he might make to his lifestyle to prevent illnesses developing.

Positive ideas are offered to help each man improve his health. Not only is he likely to live a longer and healthier life with his family and mates, he’ll miss fewer working days and be more productive.

The Decades of Life program is a unique health assessment because:

1. it is gender specific, focusing very clearly on the health issues that face men;
2. it is provided by a not-for-profit, Foundation 49. The price is set to only to recover the costs of providing the service and aims to be accessible to the whole workforce
3. it is an online assessment which makes it easy to use, but we also know the huge benefits of men having a chance to discuss any issues or concerns they may have with a nurse face-to-face – also a part of our program.