RICHMOND PARK SCHOOL LIFESTYLE SCREENING REPORT 2016 Carmarthenshire County Council
WHY LEAD A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE? A nutritious, well-balanced diet along with physical activity and refraining from smoking is the foundation of good health. Healthy eating includes consuming high-quality proteins, carbohydrates, heart-healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and water in the foods you take in while minimizing processed foods, saturated fats and alcohol. Eating in this manner helps you maintain your body s everyday functions, promotes optimal body weight and can assist in disease prevention. The nutrients in the foods you eat support the activities of day-to-day living, protect your cells from environmental damage and repair any cellular damage that might occur. Protein rebuilds injured tissue and promotes a healthy immune system. Both carbohydrates and fats fuel your body, while vitamins and minerals function throughout your body in support of your body s processes. Vitamins A, C and E, for example, act as antioxidants to protect your cells against toxins, and B vitamins help you extract energy from the foods you eat. Calcium and phosphorus keep your bones strong, while sodium and potassium help to transmit nerve signals. Without a healthy diet you might compromise any of these essential functions. In addition to the quality of the foods you consume, the quantity matters when considering good eating habits (see Eatwell Plate Guide overleaf). Taking in the same number of calories as you burn ensures that your weight remains steady over time. Consuming more than you burn, on the other hand, results in weight gain as your body converts extra calories to fat tissue. When you accumulate fat tissue, you increase your risk of developing one or more health problems, including heart disease, hypertension, respiratory issues, diabetes and cancer. A healthy meal plan without excess calories helps you not only feel better but can prolong your life. Obesity is not the only nutrition-related cause of disease onset and progression. Too much or too little of certain nutrients can also contribute to health issues. For instance, a lack of calcium in your diet can predispose you to developing osteoporosis, or weakening of your bones, while too much saturated fat can cause cardiovascular disease, and too few fruits and vegetables in your nutrition plan is associated with an increased incidence of cancer (see examples of 5 a day foods overleaf). Consuming foods from a wide variety of sources helps to ensure that your body has the nutrients it needs to avoid these health problems. 1 P age
EATWELL PLATE AND GUIDE EXAMPLES OF 5 A DAY WHAT IS MENTAL WELLBEING?* Mental wellbeing describes your mental state how you are feeling and how well you can cope with day-to-day life. Our mental wellbeing can change, from day to day, month to month or year to year. If you have good mental wellbeing (or good mental health), you are able to: feel relatively confident in yourself you value and accept yourself and judge yourself on realistic and reasonable standards feel and express a range of emotions feel engaged with the world around you you can build and maintain positive relationships with other people and feel you can contribute to the community you live in live and work productively cope with the stresses of daily life and manage times of change and uncertainty. What can affect my mental wellbeing? We all have times when we experience low mental wellbeing when we feel sad or stressed, or find it difficult to cope. For example, when we suffer some sort of loss, experience loneliness or relationships problems, or are worried about work or money. Sometimes there is no clear reason as to why we experience a period of poor mental health. 2 P age
Mental health problems and wellbeing If you experience low mental wellbeing over a long period of time, you are more likely to develop a mental health problem. If you already have a mental health problem, e.g. depression or anxiety, you are more likely to experience periods of low mental wellbeing than someone who hasn t. However, you can still have periods of good wellbeing, where you are able to manage your condition and your life without becoming unwell. *Taken from the Mind website 3 P age
RICHMOND PARK SCHOOL LIFESTYLE SCREENING DAY A healthy lifestyle screening day was carried out at Richmond Park School on 4 th July 2016 by the Occupational Health Team. 25 members of staff participated in the days to have their blood pressure checked, their blood screened for glucose and cholesterol levels and have their weight, height and Body Mass Index (BMI) measured. A Stress Awareness group session was also held for the employees on 13 th June 2016 where they were given the chance to discuss the impact of stress on day to day life. Table 1 Number of employees who attended the health screening day Number of Male employees Female employees employees attended attended 25 3 22 BLOOD PRESSURE General Practitioners (GPs) aim for patients to have an Optimal to High Normal blood pressure. They will monitor a patient if the blood pressure level is within the Mild Hypertension category or above. Table 2 Blood Pressure ranges BLOOD PRESSURE SYSTOLIC DIASTOLIC Optimal <120 mmhg < 80mmHg Normal <130 mmhg < 85mmHg High Normal <130-139 mmhg 85-89 mmhg Mild Hypertension 140-159 mmhg 90-99 mmhg Moderate Hypertension 160-179 mmhg 100-109 mmhg Severe Hypertension 180 mmhg 110 mmhg 4 P age
Out of the 25 members of staff who had their blood pressure checked, 3 employees were advised to visit their GP or Practice Nurse for a further checkup as their readings were above the Mild Hypertension levels. Blood pressure readings can fluctuate throughout the day and following exercise and stressful situations it can rise higher than the normal range. All the employees were advised on healthy lifestyle and reducing salt intake (a known cause of high blood pressure). Table 3 Number of employees seen and advised to see their GP regarding their Blood Pressure reading Number of Number of Comments employees seen employees advised 25 3 1 employee was on medication PULSE RATE Pulse (or the count of arterial pulse per minute) is equivalent to measuring the heart rate. The heart rate can be measured by listening to the heart beat directly, traditionally using a stethoscope and counting it for a minute, or via the radial pulse which is commonly measured using three fingers on the wrist. Normal pulse rates at rest, in beats per minute (BPM): new-born (0 3 months old) infants (3 6 months) infants (6 12 months) children (1 10 years) children over 10 years & adults, including seniors welltrained adult athletes 100-150 90 120 80-120 70 130 60 100 40 60 Pulse rate can be affected through stress, exercise, medication or ill health. No employees were advised to see their GP for review for abnormal pulse rate. Table 4 Employees with very low and high pulse rates Employees with Employees with pulse Comments pulse rate < 60 bpm rate > 100 bpm 6 1* *Employee on short term treatment causing fast pulse 5 P age
BLOOD GLUCOSE What should glucose levels be? The ideal values are: 4 to 7mmol/l before meals Less than 10mmol/l - 90 minutes after a meal Around 8mmol/l at bedtime. All the members of staff who had their blood glucose screened had values within the ranges stated above. CHOLESTEROL The screening test carried out by the Occupational Health Nurse gives a reading of the total cholesterol. When a person has a fasting cholesterol blood test done by their GP they will test for the total, good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol and the triglycerides in the blood. This gives a more detailed result for the GP to decide on whether treatment is required or a change in lifestyle. What should total cholesterol levels be? The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend that total cholesterol levels should be less than 4.2 mmol/l but a GP will encourage a patient to get their total cholesterol reading below 5.2 mmol/l. Out of the 25 employees who had their total cholesterol levels checked, 5 employees had readings above 5mmol/l; 3 employees had readings above 6mmol/l. These members of staff were advised on their diet and exercise. None of these employees were advised of the need to visit their GP. Out of the 17 employees whose readings were below 5mmol/l, 1 employees had readings below 2.5mmol/l (the minimum amount the blood screening machine can read, so the figures could have been lower). 6 P age
Table 5 Total Cholesterol Screening results Employees with readings > 5.0mmol/l Employees with readings > 6.0mmol/l Employees with readings < 2.5mmol/l 5 3 1 None Comments BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) Why is a Healthy Weight Important? Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight is important for overall health and can help you prevent and control many diseases and conditions. If you are overweight or obese, you are at higher risk of developing serious health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, breathing problems, and certain cancers. That is why maintaining a healthy weight is so important. It helps you lower your risk for developing these problems, helps you feel good about yourself, and gives you more energy to enjoy life. The body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass (weight) and height of an individual. The BMI is defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height, and is universally expressed in units of kg/m 2, resulting from mass in kilograms and height in metres. The BMI may also be determined using a table or chart which displays BMI as a function of mass and height using contour lines or colours for different BMI categories, and may use two different units of measurement. The BMI is an attempt to quantify the amount of tissue mass (muscle, fat, and bone) in an individual, and then categorize that person as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese based on that value. However, there is some debate about where on the BMI scale the dividing lines between categories should be placed. Commonly accepted BMI ranges are underweight: under 18.5, normal weight: 18.5 to 25, overweight: 25 to 30, obese: over 30. Not all employees opted to have their height, weight or BMI checked (some due to personal choice) and advice was given if they appeared overweight. Table 6 BMI ranges of employees who participated Underweight (under 18.5) Normal Weight (18.5 24.9) Overweight (25 29.9) Obese (30 39.9) Extreme Obesity (40 and over) BMI not done None 9 8 3 1 4 7 P age
Although BMI can be a tool to use for losing and maintaining weight, it can be confusing for those who are very muscular (body builders and rugby players for example) and this needs to be taken into account when measuring BMI, as it is an attempt to quantify the amount of tissue mass (muscle, fat, and bone) in an individual. STRESS AND WELLBEING A group teaching session was held for around 13 staff, looking at an introduction to the concepts of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy principles to examine the relationship between the way we think and behave and how it can impact on how we feel. Also strategies were explored for coping with stress both work related and non-work related. 8 P age
ADVICE GIVEN TO EMPLOYEES ON HEALTHY LIFESTYLE, WEIGHT LOSS AND MAINTENANCE When giving advice on healthy lifestyle and weight loss, there is a lot of information available. It is important to remember that everyone is different and may require more personal advice on changing their lifestyle habits. This was the case during the Richmond Park School Health Screening day. Advice given to each employee was tailored for them based on what they ate, how they exercised, and family and work life. Examples of advice given were based around: types of food eaten (did they eat 5 a day); how much food eaten in one sitting (portion sizes); times of day they ate; types of snacks eaten; whether they ate breakfast or not; foods they liked or disliked; reducing salt when cooking and adding to food, to try other spices instead; if they exercised outside of work; type of exercise (aerobic or anaerobic); medical conditions preventing from them from carrying out types of exercise; cost of healthy eating (shopping at lower priced stores); cost of joining gyms (advice on Actif gym membership); tips on giving up smoking e-cigs, Stop Smoking Wales; alcohol intake, swapping with low calorie drinks to reduce amount of alcohol intake. 9 P age
OVERALL RESULTS The overall feedback from the health screening days was very positive and the majority of the employees stated they thought this was an ideal opportunity to monitor their health and wellbeing. From the results on the day the employees were given advice and guidance on making changes to their lifestyles (or to keep on doing what they are doing if their readings were within normal limits) to help lose weight, lower their blood pressure and cholesterol readings and to give up smoking (if required). A summary of the results from the collected data is set out below: There was a total of 25 employees were screened 3 male employees and 22 female employees. 3 of the 25 employees who had their blood pressure reading checked were advised to visit their GP or Practice Nurse for further review. 2 of the 25 employees disclosed that they were currently taking medication for high blood pressure. Only 1 of the 25 employees had abnormal pulse rates, which was due to short term medication. None of the employees had blood glucose (or sugars) higher than the ideal values. 5 employees had a total cholesterol screening result above 5mmol/l and 3 employees had a total cholesterol screening result above 6mmol/l. These employees were advised on diet and exercise. 4 of the 25 employees opted out of having their BMI calculated. 9 of the participating employees had a normal BMI reading (18.5kg/m2 24.9kg/m2). 8 of the participating employees had an overweight BMI reading (25kg/m2 29.9kg/m2). 3 of the participating employees had an obese BMI reading (30kg/m2 39.9kg/m2) and 1 of the participating employees had an extreme obese BMI reading of 40kg/m2 or above. 10 P age