Health Promotion Assignment: Salt & Sugar Consumption By Office Workers In Hong Kong
Question
Task: Develop a detailed report on health promotion assignment critically discussing about daily salt and sugar consumption by office workers in Hong Kong.
Answer
Background of Health Promotion Assignment
The rate of obesity in Hong Kong is rising rapidly and office workers are frequently attacked by chronic disease. It is seen that the people of Hong Kong are prone to chronic disease due to the consumption of excessive salt and sugar. People take excessive salt during office working time, which affects the heart. The main cause of death of people is chronic diseases which include heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke. According to the experts, people consume almost 50% of their diet from outside hotels or restaurants. Most of the officers go out for lunch more than five times a week (Carrer&Wolkoff, 2018). This report shows that officers consume spicy and unhealthy food during working time. On the other hand, according to the survey report, almost 9.9% of people prefer processed food at Tiffin hours and they order processed food at least one time a day.
During the pandemic, people prefer ordering online to buy foods from restaurants, which increases the risk of healthy diseases. It is seen that office workers are ordering more than 33% more than before. In processed food there is the usage of more sugar and salt for making the food tasty. It is a major concern for the health of office workers in Hong Kong.
Objectives and goals SMART
The objective of the study is:
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Factors |
Objectives |
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Specific |
Increasing food choice awareness by the implementation of EatSmart Restaurant To reduce the intake of salt proportion in adult population To decrease the average intake of free sugars to less than 10%of total energy |
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Measurable |
Adult population health choices analysis |
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Achievable |
It is achievable by taking effective strategy in health promotion projects |
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Realistic |
It is realistic as the survey report will focus on the daily consumption of sugar and salt in daily food habits of the adult population. |
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Time based |
Three years |
Table 1: SMART objectives
Source: (Self created)
Targeted Groups
The targeted groups in the research are office workers. The office workers are chosen for the project as the health of the workers are in vulnerable condition due to unhealthy eating at the time of duty hours (Delshadet al.,2019). This group is chosen as such people consume more unhealthy foods than another age group. Workers get less time to make food and they prefer to buy online food. Another reason behind preferring online food is officers have to work overtime and for this reason, they buy outside food and go out to the launch. Due to unhealthy eating and job stress, people are frequently affected by chronic disease which causes death (Leeet al., 2018). Due to the pandemic consumers started online food orders and eating food such as snacks, cold drinks, which is bad for their health. This type of age group is attracted by the food delivery companies and that is the leading cause of choosing such a group.
Strategies
It is evident that when the disease occurs there exists a cure. Out of several interventions available one of the effective strategies widely used by the health professionals is Health belief model. The health belief model is used as a tool to try and predict health behaviors (Goodarzi et al., 2019). As per this model, individual beliefs about health and its condition plays a significant role in determining the health-related behaviors. This model signifies the key factors approaching to health involve “perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues and self-efficacy”.
As the rate of obesity and disease is increasing rapidly the consequence of this severity is widely seen in office workers. These people are frequently attacked by chronic disease. It has been found that people of Hong Kong are susceptible to chronic disease due to having excessive consumption of salt and sugar (Hong Kong Survey Findings, 2018). This becomes indispensable for the health professionals to come forth and treat the affected people in an effective way. Currently, the health belief model has been efficiently used to treat the affected individual at large. On the basis of a health belief model, human change in behavior is recognized and strategies are developed to treat in possible ways. For treating obese and disease affected people strategies have been developed by assessing the risk associated with unhealthy eating (Hong Kong Survey Findings, 2018). The following are the depictions of the severity, susceptibility, benefits, barriers and cues and self-efficacy Unser health belief model.
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Health Belief Model |
Activities |
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Perceived Susceptibility Perceived Severity Perceived Benefits |
Workshop (Day 1) – Talk (30mins)
As per the survey, information is received for severity due to excessive sugar intake giving rise to dental caries which is known to cause tooth decay and increase rate of obesity. It is likely office workers in large enterprises are reinforced to have excessive use of sugar intake due to having bought food (Zhang et al., 2020). On the other hand, it has been found that, risk associated with the high intake of salt is risk of developing hypertension, stroke and severe coronary heart disease. As per the health belief model this consequence is defined as change in human behavior in terms of blood pressure, waist-hip and BMI. As per the perceived susceptibility, it has been found that people are affected with such disease due to sugar and salt where this change in human behavior can be mitigated by enhancing and creating office workers towards sodium and sugar consumption in daily life and recognizing the sources of salt and sugar in individuals daily life (Zhang et al., 2020). In addition, as per the information received, perceived benefits have been recognized regarding health welfare of the individuals by reducing sugar and salt intake. The strategies have been determined by reading the food labeling before purchasing the products. This is likely because people are engaged in buying products rich in high calories (Obesity in Hong Kong reaches record highs, 2021). Thus, engaging in reading the food labeling can save individuals from buying high sugar and salt content. The perceived benefits have been identified as eating out eat smart restaurant. As opined by Cong et al., (2021), health can be gained when individuals follow the eating outlets. It is evident that inviting registered dietitians to design a healthy eating outlet provides the customers with a variety of healthy foods choices. The other strategies involved choosing healthy snacks that must have low sugar and low salt content and logo. In addition, the effective guidelines known to be cooking healthy food at home. It has been found that office workers who are engaged in outside work don't get enough time for cooking food at home and are reinforced to consume bought food. By engaging themselves, cooking at home can bring healthy food and healthy lifestyles. |
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Perceived Benefits Perceived Barriers Cue to Action Self-Efficacy |
Workshop (Day 1) – Talk (90mins)
As per perceived barriers, it has been identified that office workers of Hong Kong have difficulties in food selection. This is due to the fact that they are unaware what is harming them and the cause of their rise of disease. On the other hand, it has been found that they have inadequate skills for preparing food and they are susceptible to lack of time to have regular exercise. These issues can be mitigated when the individuals get engaged in facilitating eat smart restaurant schemes. This includes the points 3 less dishes such as less sugar, less salt and less oil. This can be done by recognizing the logo and avoiding those foods which have high sugar and salt contents.
Workshop (Day 2) – Supermarket Tour (1.5hr) & Interactive Game (30mins)
As per the survey, it has been found that cues to action involve supermarket tours where strategy involves converting the knowledge into actual practice. The following methods can be used such as on-field supermarkets and online-supermarket tours. Health can be gained when online shopping involves healthy food (Reading Food Labels, 2021). In other words, the individuals can follow the ways of choosing food products such as
The strategy engaged in choosing healthier snacks through interactive games. The strategy works when the group of people wins to choose healthier snacks by comparing nutrient value on the basis of food label. |
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Cues to Action |
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Promotional Method
The promotional method is conducted through email and cold calling to HR departments of each company. This practice is beneficial for the corporate companies to make the HR aware of the consumption of excessive salt and sugar in the diet. This practice is effective for reducing health issues among the employees and increasing their productivity at the workplace (Lopes et al.,2017). Secondly, create a social media page to raise awareness of the workers of Hong Kong. It will help people to reduce the amount of sugar in their daily chart. Social media platforms are needed to be used as the medium of awareness creation program. It is needed to contact the government bodies for promoting the health promotional program in various places of Hong Kong.
The awareness program is effective for forming a health safety bureau to evaluate the health report of employees at the office premises. It can be done by making various videos on the health of employees so that they become aware during the working hours. The health promotional program will be effective in case the video content is submitted to social media sites. It is necessary to e-mail frequently to the office employees to reduce the salt and sugar levels in the food (Pereira et al.,2019). The presentation of various health articles, and infographics will be beneficial for the reduction of salt level and sugar level in the dietary chart. Making a separate health awareness page is beneficial for the office employees to improve their health level.
Evaluation Method
Seven companies participated in the health promotional program and the programs are scheduled in two training sessions and follow up sessions. After the completion of workshops, it is seen that almost all the people are satisfied with the objectivity of the program. For a better understanding of the evaluation of employees, a questionnaire format is made. The questions are made in such a way that reflects the major diseases of workers and their food habits (Ryuet al., 2017). Such data is used in the workshop to inform the officers and take measures for mitigating the health issues. After conducting a survey, the dietary reports of office workers are recorded in the books. Apart from that, BMI reports of individual participants are collected and stored for better suggestions to the corporate organizations. It is helpful for tracking data of participants after taking meals and it benefits the report making of sugar and salt.
After completion of the workshop, the participants are able to reduce the sugar level in their daily life. Almost 12.8% of people change their behaviour and improve their food consumption. On the other hand, 11.5% of consumers are able to reduce the snacks and unhealthy food for lower consumption of salt. The Hongkong office employees are now trying to improve their health after following the guidelines of social pages. 55% of officers are highly interested to join the workshop, which indicates that this type of person is willing to reduce unhealthy eating during duty time. The SMART theory is highly applicable for the healthy development of office workers to cope with deteriorating health conditions. The creation of awareness is effective for the improvement of the health condition of office workers (Ryuet al., 2017). The efficiency of workers will develop through the health promotional program and it will provide a better life to the workers by promoting healthy foods in the daily chart.
References
Carrer, P. &Wolkoff, P. (2018). Assessment of indoor air quality problems in office-like environments: Role of occupational health services. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(4), p.741. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/741/pdf
Cong, N., Zhao, A., & Gong, P. (2021). Food Delivery Platform: A potential tool for monitoring the food environment and mitigating overweight/obesity in China. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 455.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.703090/pdf
Delshad, M.H., Tavafian, S.S. &Kazemnejad, A. (2019).Determinants of Stretching Exercise Behavior among Office Employees using Health Promotion Model with Added Constructs.Journal of Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, 18(02), pp.152-159. http://ojs.lumhs.edu.pk/index.php/jlumhs/article/download/150/91
Goodarzi, A., Heidarnia, A., Tavafian, S. S., &Eslami, M. (2019).Predicting oral health behaviors among Iranian students by using health belief model.Journal of education and health promotion, 8.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6378810/
Hong Kong Survey Findings.2018 “Healthiest Workplace by AIA Vitality” Hong Kong Survey Findings. (2021). Retrieved 2 November 2021, from http://www.aia.com.hk/en/about-aia/media-centre/press-releases/2018/aia-press-release-20181031.html#:~:text=Employees%20in%20Hong%20Kong%20are,terms%20of%20their%20lifestyle%
20health.&text=One%20in%20five%20(21.4%25),markets%20in%20the%20Asia%20Pacific.
Lee, M., Lee, H., Kim, Y., Kim, J., Cho, M., Jang, J. & Jang, H. (2018). Mobile app-based health promotion programs: a systematic review of the literature. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(12), p.2838. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2838/pdf
Lopes, M.C., Bittar, C.M.L. &Quemelo, P.R.V. (2017).INFLUENCE OF THE SMART WATCH BAND INTERVENTIONS ON HEALTH PROMOTION IN OFFICE WORKERS.FactaUniversitatis, Series: Physical Education and Sport, 15(1), pp.073-082. http://casopisi.junis.ni.ac.rs/index.php/FUPhysEdSport/article/viewFile/2726/1767 Obesity in Hong Kong reaches record highs - 50% now overweight or obese. (2021). Retrieved 2 November 2021, from https://www.pacificprime.hk/blog/obesity-in-hong-kong-reports/
Pereira, M., Comans, T., Sjøgaard, G., Straker, L., Melloh, M., O’leary, S., Chen, X. & Johnston, V. (2019). The impact of workplace ergonomics and neck-specific exercise versus ergonomics and health promotion interventions on office worker productivity: A cluster-randomized trial.Health promotion assignmentScandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, 45(1), pp.42-52. https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/74057/74342.pdf sequence=2 Reading Food Labels. (2021). Retrieved 2 November 2021, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/reading-food-labels Ryu, H., Jung, J., Cho, J. and Chin, D.L. (2017). Program development and effectiveness of workplace health promotion program for preventing metabolic syndrome among office workers. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), p.878.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/8/878/pdf
Zhang, Z., Han, T., Swystun, J., Sakamoto, Y., &Irani, P. (2020, May). Design to Eat Smart: A Design Framework for Pervasive Interventions of Eating Habits. In Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (pp. 108-121).http://hci.cs.umanitoba.ca/assets/publication_files/PervasiveHealth20DesignFramework.pdf
