Workplace Health Promotion Among Ethnically Diverse Women in Midlife With a Low Socioeconomic Position

Abstract

Workplace health promotion (WHP) may be an appropriate way to support women with a low socioeconomic position (SEP) during midlife. Little is known about reaching and engaging women in WHP, particularly not at the intersection of midlife, low SEP, and ethnicity. We initiated the ProudWoman project, in which we implemented a WHP intervention aimed at supporting midlife women as a pilot in an academic hospital. We qualitatively evaluated the implementation using the RE-AIM framework. The pilot comprised multiple steps: tailoring the intervention to the needs of ethnically diverse group of midlife women with a low SEP, developing an implementation protocol, implementing the tailored intervention, and evaluating the implementation process. The main findings of our study are: (1) due to a wide range of recruitment activities that were actively deployed, we were able to reach an ethnically diverse group of midlife women with a low SEP; (2) regarding adoption, awareness of the relevance of this topic as an occupational health challenge was not self-evident at the organizational level; (3) according to our participants, various facilitators and barriers should be taken into account in the implementation of the work–life program; and (4) our focus group discussion revealed as maintenance is relevant to these levels in different ways, awareness of midlife and menopause as an occupational health challenge should be raised at four professional levels. We conclude that elements, such as an active and personal recruitment approach, are important in the implementation of WHP for ethnically diverse midlife women with an SEP.

Effectiveness of workplace-based interventions to promote wellbeing among menopausal women: A systematic review

“…The participation rate was 90% ( n = 99). 28 The intervention implemented by Verburgh et al, was an adaptation of a pre-existing Work Life Program (WLP) 21,29 and had multiple components: menopause consultations, work–life coaching sessions and physical training sessions. Participants consisted of food service assistants, service desk employees, and cleaners at a teaching hospital.…”

“…Out of them 11 articles were selected for full-text screening. The full text screening excluded six studies because they did not meet the inclusion criteria: three qualitative studies, [21][22][23] a secondary analysis of a larger community-based study, 24 and two clinic-based studies. 25,26 The remaining five articles were included in the narrative synthesis.…”

The Caring Class

“…Third, in our studies we observe that menopausal transition has major implications for women working in long-term care, in relation to health and labor market participation (Chapter 3,5,8). Menopause is not always recognized by women themselves or their employers or silenced as the workplace as a result of taboes (Bendien et al, 2021;Verburgh et al, 2022;Verdonk et al, 2022). In this thesis, we observe that the menopause, and the lack of support from employers in this phase, is a reason for women to opt for self-employment (Chapter 5).…”

“…Self-employment allowed them to employ health strategies, such as lowering their working hours or organizing enough rest between shifts, to continue their paid care work. From a societal perspective, the importance of menopausal complaints for women in LTC can be explained by the ageing workforce in LTC, higher workloads and increased retirement age (Verburgh, 2022). Men on the other hand often described themselves as stop-gappers, residing temporarily in LTC in times when work in more masculine-typed sectors was scarce (Chapter 4).…”

“…In this thesis, we observe that the menopause, and the lack of support from employers in this phase, is a reason for women to opt for self-employment (Chapter 5). Other studies also show that women negotiate menopausal complaints by lowering their working hours of opt for less demanding jobs, often with major financial consequences (Verburgh et al, 2022;Verdonk et al, 2022).…”