The Ministry of Health & Prevention (MOHAP), represented by Health Education and Promotion Department, has launched the third phase of “Healthy and Positive Work Environment” initiative for the year 2019, in a ceremony held at the headquarters of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The initiative serves government directions to achieve happiness and positivity.

The initiative targets the employees of 15 federal and local government entities across the country, where 1000 employees will be examined by the necessary basic medical tests.

The initiative seeks to create a supportive health environment to help employees adopt healthy habits and lifestyles as well as increase their health awareness. It also contributes to reducing non-communicable diseases and encouraging the employees to perform regular check-up, through the services provided by MOHAP, more importantly services of “Itmenan” initiative.

“Healthy and Positive Work Environment” initiative managed, through first and second phases 2017 and 2018, to target the employees of 25 federal and local government entities across the country. Around 2500 employees from Dubai and Northern Emirates participated in the programme, while the average age of the participants was 37 years.

Medical Examinations and Reports on Employees’ Health Status

The results of the year 2018 showed that most employees have regular weight. The percentage of the employees who are enjoying regular weight was 56.5%. On the other hand, percentage of the employees who are suffering from weight gain or obesity was 33.9%. With regards to blood pressure results, the percentage of those who are suffering from high blood pressure was 10.2%, considering that the blood pressure test has been performed three consecutive times for every employee, in order to make sure of the accuracy of the results.

As for blood sugar test, the results showed that 30.5% of the employees suffers from slight increase in blood sugar, while 14.6% of the employees has severe increase in blood sugar according to A1C test.

With respect cholesterol test, the results showed that most participating employees don’t suffer from cholesterol rise with a percentage of 65.5%, while 34.5% of the staff has an increase in cholesterol levels in the blood.

Programme Activities

The activities of the programme feature medical examinations for the employees including: blood sugar and A1C tests, cholesterol and blood pressure tests, carbon monoxide screening, and body mass index calculation and cardiovascular disease risk factors test for those over the age of 40.

Additionally, the event includes providing medical consultations and advising the employees to make use of the diverse services provided by MOHAP. Hence, the participating entities will receive reports on the employees’ health status, besides the guidance and knowledge manual, and knowledge-related bag. These manuals include practical tips that contribute to making workplaces much healthier and productive for the employees.

Raising Awareness about Healthy Lifestyles

Commenting on the launch of this year’s initiative, H.E. Dr. Hussein Abdel-Rahman Al-Rand, Undersecretary of the Ministry’s Health Assistant Sector, Health Centers and Clinics, said that the third phase will boost further the gains made during the successful first and second phases, which achieved positive outcomes that contributed to changing the employees’ behaviors towards a healthy lifestyle.

This programmes falls under the activities and events of the national initiative “Raise Awareness About Healthy Lifestyle” in line with MOHAP’s strategy to provide a comprehensive and integrated healthcare in innovative and sustainable ways to prevent the spread of diseases in the society, and also to improve outcomes of the national indicators of the healthy lifestyles, so as to achieve the objectives of health role in the National Agenda for UAE Vision 2021.

Dr. Al Rand shed the light on the importance of the awareness programmes launched regularly by the ministry, the effective and proactive contribution to achieving the best outcomes in terms of reinforcing the daily attitude in accordance with healthy lifestyles, the matter that serves government directions to achieve happiness and positivity in the work environment.

This will positively affect the institution and employees’ performance by focusing on healthy lifestyles, which protect the employees from chronic diseases, such as diabetes, blood pressure, obesity, and depression. Moreover, these programmes focus on providing physical activity places in the work environment, eating a healthy diet, quitting smoking and facing work pressure.