Perception of Obesity Related Stress at Workplace

Project title :> Perception of obesity related stress at workplace among healthcare workers to
reduce absenteeism?
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C. Email Address
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also Form on page 9.
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© 2015 NZCDI aster Research Project Proposal Form Page 1

DECISION
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YES
End Date:
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CUT AND REPEAT THE ABOVE SECTIONS IF THERE ARE MORE RESEARCHERS IN THE TEAM.
For Administrative Use Only

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1. I have read all the NZCDI Research Policies (Delete which ever applies
at the time of completing this application)
Yes No
If NO, then read these Policies before continuing this application, knowledge of
these is required by the NZCDI Research and Ethics Committee).
1. Project timelines
Planned start date:
Planned end date:
Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DESCRIPTION
2. Indicate the name and mailing address of external sources of funding.
ANDIF APPLICABLE, ALSO ATTACH A COPY OF YOUR EXTERNAL
FUNDING
PROPOSAL.
Name of External Funding Body:

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Address of External Funding Body:
3. PURPOSE: Please keep response clear and to the point.
a) What is the research question for this project? My research question for this project
are
 What is the impact of obesity on absenteeism healthcare staff and how does it
affects their stress level ?
And also write the three suitable objectives for this research.?
The research study has the following three objectives:
1. To understand the perception of health care workers regarding workplace stress caused by
obesity.
2. To determine the impact of obesity related stress in causing absenteeism in workplace.
3. To determine relevant strategies to reduce obesity related stress in the workplace as perceived by
the health care workers.
b) What is the purpose of this project?
The aim of the study is to determine the perception of obesity related stress at
workplace among health care workers to reduce absenteeism.
c) Is this research project significant?
d) Brief Research Literature Review (maximum of 500 words)
The medical condition in human in which excessive accumulation of body fat takes place is known
as obesity. The current global standard of diagnostic method for obesity is Body Mass Index of over 30
kg/m2 (American Diabetes Association, 2018). Obesity crosses the line of cosmetic concern and is a
serious health issue. If left untreated, obesity can lead to development of issues such as diabetes, certain
cancers, high blood pressure and most importantly cardiovascular diseases. According to Ministry of
Health Survey, over 34% adults in the country were obese in the year 2017, accounting for over 1.2
million people. Obesity is one of the major growing concern in New Zealand as the cost associated with
obesity health expenditure crossed NZ$686 million in the year 2006, which is nearly 4.5% of the
country’s total expenditure (Lal, Moodie, Ashton, Siahpush & Swinburn, 2012). Development of obesity

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related stress is gradually increase with the increase in unacceptable workplace attitude such as body
shaming or discrimination. According to Fitzgerald, Kirby, Murphy & Geaney (2016), with the increase
in obesity related stress in workplace, there is a direct proportional increase in the self-reported
absenteeism. Absenteeism can lead to huge amount of productivity loss. According to Lal, Moodie,
Ashton, Siahpush & Swinburn (2012), the cost of loss in productivity due to obesity impacted
absenteeism in New Zealand for the year 2006 was over NZ$911 million, concluding considerable
evidence of providing effective interventions to address the issue of prevalence of obesity, its related
stress and its associated absenteeism in professionals from a workplace. The prevalence rate of people
suffering from obesity is high in few regions of New Zealand. According to Ministry of Health NZ
(2019), over 65% of the people in Pacific, 47% of the adults in Maori and over 32% in all of New
Zealand were suffering from obesity in the year 2018.
In a health care setting, absenteeism can lead to severe deficit in the workforce and increases the
associated risk to patient’s safety and health outcome (Asay, Roy, Lang, Payne & Howard 2016).
Therefore, it is important a study is conducted to review the current condition of absenteeism driven by
obesity related stress in health care settings and analysing the perception of the health care professionals
about effective strategies to address this issue. Increase the physical activity levels of the health care
professionals, improving the diet quality in health care settings and designing recommendations to
manage excess weight are common interventions to address the issue. However, there is a need to analyse
the role of health care professionals in providing support to fellow obese worker suffering from obesity
related stress and practicing absenteeism. Only by encouraging the health care workers to intervene
strategically and effectively reduce obesity related stress in workplace, the cases of absenteeism can be
reduced, which will crucially help the health care setting to retain healthy workforce and ensure best
health care delivery to the patient.
References
American Diabetes Association. (2018). 7. Obesity Management for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes:
Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2018. Diabetes care, 41(Suppl 1), S65. doi:
10.2337/dc18-S007. https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/Supplement_1/S65
Asay, G. R. B., Roy, K., Lang, J. E., Payne, R. L., & Howard, D. H. (2016). Peer reviewed:
absenteeism and employer costs associated with chronic diseases and health risk factors in the
US workforce. Preventing chronic disease, 13. doi: 10.5888/pcd13.150503
https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2016/15_0503.htm

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Fitzgerald, S., Kirby, A., Murphy, A., & Geaney, F. (2016). Obesity, diet quality and absenteeism in a
working population. Public health nutrition, 19(18), 3287-3295. Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980016001269 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-
health-nutrition/article/obesity-diet-quality-and-absenteeism-in-a-working-population/
293DE76ABBE8B20FB73C8C910C584590
Lal, A., Moodie, M., Ashton, T., Siahpush, M., & Swinburn, B. (2012). Health care and lost
productivity costs of overweight and obesity in New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand
journal of public health, 36(6), 550-556. Doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2012.00931.x.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23216496
Ministry of Health NZ. (2019). Obesity statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-
health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/obesity-statistics [Accessed 24 Jan. 2020].
e) Please provide detail of the methodology that will be used.
The study design chosen to conduct and achieve the objective of the
study comprises of qualitative data collection and the use of triangulation
method. The data will be collected with the help of semi-structured
questionnaire based onetime interview. Participants, that is, health care
workers from a health care institution will constitute the sample size and
selection of participants will be conducted with the help of single stage cluster
sampling method. Informed consent will be taken from the participants prior
to the conduct of study. The interview will be audio-recorded along with
transcripts and will be aiming at completing each interview within a time
frame of 20 minutes.
The transcripts for the audio recordings will be completed post the
conduct of the interview and the data will be thoroughly analysed to sub
categorise the research findings into theme and conducting thematic analysis
and further coding. For future reference, the transcripts from the study will be
kept for minimum of 5 years, in a secure place and will be devoid of any
personal or confidential information of the participants.

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f) Describe how this research will be disseminated to the
participants and NZCDI.
The entire research and study data will be submitted to the Institute Name will be
then passed on to the NZCDI. The selected participants will have a right to retain or to
request for a copy of the research study upon agreeing for maintaining confidentiality and
the same will provided to them in the form of email of hard copy.