Aims
Study the major chronic disease risk factors in an industrial population in Trivandrum. - Explore patterns of tobacco use, diet and physical inactivity among the intervention group to develop intervention tools to implement among the workers and their families.
- Conduct ongoing risk-factor surveys after two and four years and compare the prevalence of risk factors in the two groups.
- Build institutional capacity at the industry to ensure programme sustainability.
Click here >> for statistics about the risk factors in Kerala
Sites
Workplace
Academic institution
- The Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology’s Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies (AMCHSS) is a national leader in medical science, epidemiology, and the development of novel methods of diagnosis and treatment, and will serve as the coordinating centre in India. Research at the AMCHSS is multidisciplinary, making it an ideal setting for a chronic disease research programme. Researchers at the AMCHSS are renowned in India for their studies on chronic diseases; work already being conducted at AMCHSS, including training and research capacity-building, is relevant to CIH.
Intervention activities
Tobacco
- Workers and their families will receive health education on chronic disease prevention and control and smoking cessation. An incentive system will be devised, in consultation with company management and the workers union, to reward, acknowledge publicly and honour (at workers union meetings) those who give up smoking. Successful quitters will be encouraged to become tobacco-control advocates in their workplace and neighborhoods and engage actively in promoting quitting among their colleagues and other family members, in addition to advocating for smoke-free public spaces. Company management and the workers union will engage to implement and enforce policies for smoke-free workplaces and homes. All study participants will periodically be offered advice and medical check-ups.
Diet
- Workers and their families will receive health education focusing on healthy diets and the benefits of consuming at least 5–6 servings of vegetables and fruits and reducing intake of salt, oil, fats and alcohol. At the institutional level, the staff at the workers’ cafeteria will be educated in healthy cooking practices, the need to serve more fruits, vegetables, low salt use and on the harm caused by unhealthy diet. Spouses will also be educated in healthy cooking practices.
Local partner: Kudumbasri (self-help women’s groups) educate women in healthy cooking practices, such as the need to serve more fruits, vegetables, low salt use. The Kudumbasri will also help educate households on the need for increasing physical activity through incorporating it into daily activities such as using stairs, and walking to shops, markets, workplaces and schools.
Physical activity
- The company management and the workers union will be educated on the need for increasing physical activity both within and outside the worksite. Existing areas for recreation and sports will be made user-friendly. A 24-hour gym will also be built on the industry grounds. Promotion of walking and cycling instead of taking motorised transport inside the work campus will be implemented in consultation with stakeholders. Workers and their family members that are overweight will be advised and encouraged to monitor weight regularly and make appropriate lifestyle modification to reduce weight.
Technology (for example, mobile phones) will be used to encourage participants to adopt a healthy diet, increase physical activity and quit smoking.
Capacity-building
We begin this intervention with an established relationship with industries in the surrounding region. Collaborators at the site will develop a community-based model of chronic disease prevention and control, focusing on risk-factor modification. We will also develop a model for community-based prevention and control of chronic diseases in India, based on risk-factor modification, to be incorporated into the Masters in Public Health curriculum at AMCHSS. The hope is that this will extend the knowledge gained and facilitate continuation of capacity building in chronic disease prevention even after the conclusion of this project. Long-term sustainability of the project is our ultimate goal.
Dissemination
The research findings will be disseminated to the employees and representatives of industry through an industry quarterly magazine, which is free to all employees, and on the company website. For wider distribution to facilitate informed decision-making at the government level, findings will also be disseminated to the health ministry and made available (through a press conference seminar) to the local print and electronic media and to the general public. Manuscripts will also be submitted to scientific journals for wider dissemination.
What is already being done in Kerala?
Click here >> to read about some existing projects.