Health and wellness in the Australian coal mining industry: A cross sectional analysis of baseline findings from the RESHAPE workplace wellness program

Abstract

Overweight and obesity has reach pandemic levels, with two-thirds (67%) of adult Australians classified as overweight or obese. As two of the most significant behavioral risk factors for obesity are modifiable (diet and exercise), there exists an opportunity for treatment through workplace health promotion initiatives. As one of Australia’s largest industries with its own unique workplace factors, the mining industry has previously reported higher than population levels of overweight and obesity. This represented an opportune setting to test the RESHAPE workplace wellness program. RESHAPE is an eight-step framework (based on the WHO ‘Health Workplace Framework and Model’) which aims to provide a sustained approach to wellness in the workplace. This paper presents baseline findings from a pilot study that aimed to implement RESHAPE at three mine sites in NSW, Australia, and investigates the issue of overweight and obesity in the coal mining industry. Across three mine sites, 949 coal miners were examined cross-sectionally on a range of workplace, wellness, health, diet, and exercise factors using a paper-based survey. This was a predominantly male sample (90.4%) with the majority (59.2%) of participants aged 25–44 years. Self-reported height and weight measures indicated that less than 20 percent (18.9%) of participants were in a healthy BMI range, while there were effectively equal numbers of overweight (40.9%) and obese (39.1%) participants. Only 3.5% of participants met the daily recommendation for vegetables (5 serves) and shift-workers had greater association with elevated BMI compared to non-shift workers (B = 1.21, 95% CI: 0.23, 2.20, p = 0.016). Poor nutrition is likely to be a key component in elevated levels of overweight and obesity within this industry, with workplace factors compounding challenges workers face in implementing health behavior change. Future studies would benefit from assessing diet and physical activity knowledge in relation to recommendations and serving sizes.

Workplace wellness programs targeting weight outcomes in men: A scoping review

“…For workplaces where intensive weight loss programs are viable, the addition of a WLM phase could help maintain treatment effects into the future. This is particularly relevant to male‐dominated industries like the Australian coal mining industry, whereby over 90% of the workforce is male 12 . Considering 84.9% of males are either overweight or with obesity in this industry, 85 and the linear relationship between coal miner BMI and workplace incident risk, 86 effective weight loss strategies could have considerable impact.…”

“…11 This larger reach also means workplaces have access to demographics who would otherwise be difficult to engage in health promotion. Blue-collar male-dominated industries such as mining, 12 construction, 13 and manufacturing (with recognized high levels of overweight and obesity) 14 could all potentially benefit greatly from WWPs as this population is usually underrepresented in health research, 15 yet may benefit the most from such interventions. 16 The successful implementation of health research is underscored by the need to address factors such as gender and the implications these extenuating factors have on outcomes.…”

Lifestyle as an Indicator of Central Obesity in Coal Mining Workers from Indonesia

“…In the Australian coal mining industry, poor nutrition is likely to be a key component in elevated levels of overweight and obesity. 7 There were significant differences in calorie expenditure, activity patterns, and the number of steps walked daily between the overweight and obese groups in South African Mining Employees. 8 However, there is very little research on lifestyle indicators among mining workers in Indonesia.…”

Workplace Health Promotion Programs Targeting Smoking, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…This larger reach also means workplaces' have access to demographics who would otherwise be difficult to engage in health promotion. Blue-collar male dominated industries such as mining (Bezzina et al, 2021), construction (Viester et al, 2018), and manufacturing (Morgan et al, 2011) could all potentially benefit from WHP programs as this population is usually underrepresented in health research (Van der Put et al, 2020), yet may benefit the most from such interventions (Shen et al, 2018).…”