Is your health the boss’ responsibility?

A latest health and lifestyle poll reveals that 96 per cent of polled respondents in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region believe it is the employer’s responsibility to support and promote an employee’s health and wellness.

A majority of respondents (87.1 per cent) to the poll conducted by job portal Bayt.com claimed they will more likely exercise if their company offers a gym subscription.

Only 2.3 per cent of respondents claimed otherwise.

Exercising and physical activities

A majority of Mena professionals take time to exercise throughout the week, with 29.1 per cent of them engaging in more than 30 minutes of exercise three or four times a week. Almost 1 in 5 respondents (18.5 per cent) said they exercise once or twice in a week.

Walking/running emerged as the exercise of choice for 29.7 per cent of respondents, followed by intramural sports (17.8 per cent), swimming (15.5 per cent) and lifting weights (14.6 per cent).

A minority of respondents (13.3 per cent) confessed of not engaging in any exercises at all.

Only 3 in 10 respondents (30.2 per cent) said that their companies provide fitness facilities or benefits to encourage a healthy lifestyle, while 60 per cent claimed to the contrary.

One out of every 10 respondents said they were not sure about the health benefits offered at their company.

Diet and eating habits

When asked about the overall healthiness of their diet, 6 out of 10 respondents agree that their diet is healthy with 17.5 per cent claiming it is ‘very healthy’ and 43.1 per cent said it is ‘somewhat healthy’. Conversely, 26.8 per cent of respondents believe their diet is ‘not too healthy’.

Professionals generally eat more fruits and vegetables than fast food. A good number - 42 per cent of respondents - said they eat vegetables and fruits on a daily basis; 23.1 per cent said they eat them ‘several times a week’, and 11.5 per cent said they eat them ‘less often’.

Among the professionals who agree to eating fast food, 16.7 per cent eat out ‘every day’, 14.1 per cent ‘several times a week’ and 23.8 per cent ‘a few times a month’.

The poll showed that 63.3 per cent of the region’s respondents have improved their eating habits lately, 37.7 per cent claimed they have moved away from fast food, and 23.6 per cent claimed they have cut down on sugar and gluten.

Challenges to healthy living

The biggest challenge that professionals face when making healthy lifestyle choices is their busy schedule (30 per cent). Other reasons cited include lack of management (15.8 per cent), lack of motivation (15.3 per cent) and lack of exercise facilities in or near their workplace (10.6 per cent).

Sleeping schedule

Over half of polled professionals (53.5 per cent) believe that their work schedule allows for adequate sleep, while 31.2 per cent disagree.

More than 4 in 10 of them (41.6 per cent) believe that they need 6 to 7 hours of sleep to function best during the day; 22.8 per cent said they require 7 to 8 hours, and 20.6 per cent believe they need 8 or more hours.

In reality, 30.1 per cent of respondents get 7 to 8 hours of sleep on an average workday, followed by 6 to 7 hours (29.7 per cent) and less than 6 hours (26.9 per cent). In addition, 10.2 per cent said they get more than 8 hours of sleep a day.

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