only twenty percent of UK full-time workers were in perfect health.

A new UK government study done over 25 years shows that eight out of ten British employees are either overweight or suffering from a long-term illnesses which impacts negatively on their productivity. The study has also quantified the problem of poor health and being overweight and estimates that over £21 billion is lost every year as a result.  The study which was done by Gallup the survey company and Healthways a wellbeing consultancy looked at nearly 9,000 individuals.

Their results showed that those people who have both weight problems and other health conditions are taking more than three weeks sick leave annually and that this lack of productivity could lead to the UK struggling to come out of recession. Other findings of the study were that only twenty percent of UK full-time workers were in perfect health.

Another thing which should be taken into account and which was not evaluated in this study is the problem of presenteeism which is when people turn up to work when they are ill. This means that they are clocking in as if they are working but they are in fact being significantly less productive in the workplace.

Mr.Ben Leedle the president of Healthways said that the chronic disease burden in the UK workforce was now at dangerous levels. It was noted that as well as a large number of overweight workers there were many who suffered from depression, stress, anxiety and back and knee pain all of which are observed in higher numbers in people with weight problems.

One of the greatest benefits of losing weight is that you become more productive, and more productivity leads to a better quality of life and higher earnings. As Ukmedix News we believe that the UK government needs to invest more in obesity prevention and we would argue that money spent on getting the population thin will be returned to the state coffers many times over in the long term.