Gallup, the global polling organization, and Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY), the worldwide leader in well-being improvement, today jointly revealed new data showing that chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and cancer are costing the UK economy 21.6 billion pounds a year in lost productivity. Insights into the overall well-being of Britons from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI) will be unveiled during an event Thursday at London's Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).
The Gallup-Healthways data is based on 8,866 surveys of UK residents, of which 3,908 are employed full-time (45% of the adult population). The data also showed:
- Workers with normal weight and with no disease burden report fewer than four unhealthy days per year and less than 1.5 missed days of work per year due to poor health.
- Obese or overweight workers with a burden of three or more diseases report 60 unhealthy days per year and over 18 missed work days per year due to poor health.
"The implication of the chronic disease burden of the UK's workforce is at alarming levels," said Ben Leedle, president and CEO of Healthways. "The Gallup-Healthways data is shining new light on the powerful correlation between well-being and productivity. Employers who recognize the importance of improving well-being at the workplace are most likely to gain a competitive advantage."
Gallup and Healthways released the initial results from the Well-Being Index tracking in the UK in April 2011, revealing that 25 percent of the population of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales is obese and another 31 percent is overweight. Additionally, fewer than half of those surveyed exercise regularly. These initial results, coupled with the findings released today, are particularly pertinent to UK business leaders who can now draw direct links between a healthy work environment and an organization's bottom line.
"Since the initial launch of the Well-Being Index earlier this year, the size of our database has significantly increased, allowing us to conduct rigorous, scientific research of a greater segment of the United Kingdom," said Dan Witters, a principal at Gallup. "We've been able to look at some extremely fine cuts of data, which have revealed a critical issue within the working population -- the struggle with obesity and chronic disease and its effects on the nation's economy. The WBI data provides a clearer understanding of the scale of the problem, which will allow business and government leaders to better determine ways to tackle it."
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