India faces a burden of 101 million people with diabetes, 136 million with pre-diabetes, and 315 million people with hypertension. However, solely 1 / 4 of rural and fewer than half of city persons are conscious that they dwell with these situations. The position of the distinctive way of life intervention mannequin is to stop an additional upsurge in diabetes and hypertension prevalence and the speedy development from pre-diabetes to diabetes.

The INDIA-WORKS analysis was carried out over a interval of six years (2016-2022) and assessed essential parameters like HbA1c, waist circumference, blood strain, blood ldl cholesterol and weight at 11 various work websites in 5 states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. People had been chosen from metal and manufacturing crops, locomotive models and refineries and comprised principally industrial staff and managers, in keeping with Dr Mohan. While a complete of 6,265 staff had been screened, researchers famous that weight problems was prevalent in 9 of 10 members screened. Which means almost half of these screened had been at a excessive threat of creating diabetes and one in three reported hypertension. That’s why solely 2,108 staff might be eligible for intervention. The common age of members was 46, 77 % being predominantly males.

“This is one of the longest-surveyed reports in the corporate world and participating worksites through this programme have now become torchbearers in creating healthier workplaces. They are also great examples of how management and employees can work together to prevent disease among workers and their families by making simple, practical and sustainable lifestyle changes which begin at their workspace,” Dr Mohan provides.

The worksite-based way of life intervention mannequin focussed on programme effectiveness and success of implementation (e.g., feasibility, acceptability, and sustainability. Employees additionally labored with skilled peer educators from worksites to ship the intervention. The mannequin included weekly lessons for the primary few months and month-to-month lessons for the remaining eight months.

“Organised sector (large or medium-sized industries or offices) employees have the highest burden of chronic disease risk factors such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. There is substantial evidence that we can prevent or control these risk factors if people have acquired these diseases already. The INDIA-WORKS programme demonstrates average reduction in cardiometabolic risk factors such as weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and HbA1c,” says Dr D Prabhakaran, Executive Director, of Centre for Chronic Disease Control, and Distinguished Professor on the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). “The risk of diabetes is four and a half times less when one is able to reduce his/her weight by 5 kg. With minor adjustments in employees’ diet coupled with a daily brisk walking capsule of 30 minutes for five days a week, the workplace health programme can be a gamechanger,” he provides.