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Bupa Foundation boosts health in the workplace

12 October 2006

Five medical research projects promoting good health at work have been awarded grants worth a total of £982,119 from the Bupa Foundation.

The Bupa Foundation donates between £1.5 and £2.5 million per year through its medical research grants, the vast majority of which go to universities and medical research teams in NHS hospitals.

It is hoped that the information gathered from the chosen projects will provide medical teams, occupational health experts and policy makers with the knowledge and resources to improve both health in the workplace and overall quality of life.

Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, Deputy Chairman of the Bupa Foundation, said "The Bupa Foundation is dedicated to funding medical research to prevent, relieve and cure sickness and ill health, and these projects aim to take major steps in the understanding of a wide range of work-related health issues. By making people aware of what is healthy behaviour, we believe they will be more motivated to practice it."

Grants have been awarded to the following projects

Driving out back pain in business drivers

Dr Diane Gyi and her team from the Department of Human Sciences at Loughborough University have been awarded a grant of £192,037 to research the effects of car driving on individuals who drive as part of their job. Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common forms of work-related ill health in the UK, with an annual cost of over £200 million, and employees who drive more than 20 hours a week as part of their job are at particular risk. The research will involve the development and evaluation of a Driving Ergonomics tool, specifically targeted at managing the risks of ill health in business drivers.

Work-related musculoskeletal diseases of surgeons

A grant of £102,808 has been awarded to the team from the University of Hong Kong Medical Centre and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, led by Dr Pei Ho, who will be undertaking a unique research project looking at how the intense working environment impacts on surgeons' health. Long working hours, rigorous physical and mental work, awkward posture and repetitive joint movement can all induce work-related musculoskeletal disorders in surgeons; this project will assess the prevalence and severity of their symptoms. An on-site biomechanical study on surgeons during theatre will also be carried out, with recommendations on postural and muscle training offered by rehabilitation experts. Their effect will be tested.

Increasing physical activity: designing and testing a workplace intervention

This 36 month study will develop and evaluate a flexible and problem-based initiative to promote physical activity in the work place. The initiative will target Awareness, Motivation and Environment (AME) and will compare changes in behaviour, health and work for employees who receive the AME intervention with those who do not. The study is being led by Dr Rebecca Lawton of the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton. An award of £332,172 has been made from the Bupa Foundation for this study.

An investigation into the links between a proactive corporate approach to employee health, attendance management and organisational performance - what works and why?

Forward-thinking employers are becoming more aware of the benefits of enhancing the health of their employees and supporting their early return to work after periods of sickness absence. The aim of this study is to identify examples of good practice and to develop and evaluate the impact of guidance to encourage organisations to adopt such approaches. An award of £272,788 has been made to Professor Jeremy Dale of the Division of Health in the Community and his team at the University of Warwick for this research.

A randomized controlled trial of a scalable and minimally intrusive workplace health promotion initiative upon individual work performance and productivity

The Work Foundation, led by director of research, Mr Stephan Bevan is to receive an award worth £82,314 to investigate health promotion at work. The study will look at a health promotion initiative in a UK organisation and study its impact on the health of employees, their performance and productivity. The research will develop a tool to measure performance and productivity at work that involves asking both the employee themselves and their colleagues. The tool will then be available to other researchers for use in the future.

"Britons work the longest hours in Europe so research which can go someway towards safeguarding health and wellness at work is of vital importance. These important projects will further our understanding in the field of health at work, and will hopefully have a positive impact on the lives of employees both now and in the future," concluded Dr Vallance-Owen.