Workplace Behaviours and Health Promotion Interventions

Literature Review

Mining is a very important industry in Aust
ralia. It is a major contributor for the economy of Australia.  Australia mines Iron, Nickel, Bauxite, Copper, Gold, Uranium, Diamond and may more ores. Each state is Australia mines coal. It is used as a source of power.

In spite of the economic benefits, mining industry has the downside also. The downside is the health and the environment of the people working as well as living in mining towns. A study had been conducted on health behaviours of shift workers in Western Australia. (Joyce et.al. 2013) Most of the shift workers were fly-in fly-out (FIFO). FIFO workers were predominantly male. They suffered from health problems like smoking, obese, diabetes, alcoholism etc.

A study was conducted by Beyond Zero Emissions (Australia) studied the specific diseases associated with coal mining. It also studied the prevalence of specific diseases in the Hunter Region of Australia. (Colagiuri Cochrane and Girgis, 2012). The study gave important insights into the health of people living in the Hunter Region. It found a prevalence of diabetes and heart diseases among Children and infants of the Coal mining community. The study also found presence of cancer and type one diabetes among the aboriginals living in mining cities. Studies have also found a relation between diabetes and particulate matter. (Rajagopalan and Brook 2012).

An intercept conducted in the mining town of Pilbara found that more 53% suffered from diabetes. (Ellis et.al. 2014)

Thus it becomes imperative that the health of workers in mining industry and the people in the mining towns are looked into. Towards this end, both diabetes Australia and the Australian Government have initiated programs for the prevention and control of type 2 diabetes. (Post et.al. 2015) Health promotions in the work place play an important role in management of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes. A precede-procede model (PPM) was used to implement the initiatives of diabetes Australia and government of Australia in the control of type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes-MILES conducted a major study in the management of diabetes. An online survey was used for collection of data. The role diabetes plays, the support received and the process by which they manage the diabetes. (Speight et.al. 2012).

Telemedicine has also been used as health care interventions. It can be targeted towards communities suffering from particular diseases. (Sorenson et.al. 2015)

Research aim

The aim of the research is to find the percentage population in a particular mine suffering from diabetes. It will also reflect the healthcare activities being undertaken by the mining industry for the workforce suffering from diabetes. It also aims to find the impact of the health promotion activities being undertaken.

Research question:

The research question for this assignment is as follows:

• How is diabetes related to miners?
• What is the percentage of people suffering from diabetes in a particular mine?
• What are some of the health promotion interventions being undertaken?

Research objective

The objective of doing the research is as follows:

• To find the correlation between mining and diabetes
• To find the percentage of miners suffering from diabetes at a particular mine
• To find whether the health promotion initiatives being taken are able to help the miners.

Research Methodology

An intercept survey will have to conduct on mining workforce. The survey should be relevant to the type of diabetes and the health promotion initiatives. For this purpose a mine may be selected for this purpose. Primary data would have to collected and primary research techniques will be used for collection of data.  Data on gender, age, race, disease pattern and interventions undertaken will be collected from the miners. The data will be obtained by telemedicine. (Sorenson et.al. 2015). “Deductive research approach” would be applied to find the percentage of people suffering from diabetes at the mine. The same process will be used to access the usefulness of the healthcare interventions. The effect of the healthcare interventions during the disease pattern will be marked. This would give an insight into usefulness of the healthcare intervention being undertaken at the mine. It would also provide a reference to the workplace behaviour in mines.

Expected research outcome

The previous works on health care interventions on diabetes using PPM (Post et.al. 2015) and Diabetes-Miles (Speight et.al. 2012) have shown a significant improvement in the wellbeing of the mining workforce. Thus, the present study will only strengthen the fact that there is prevalence of diabetes in the mining workforce. It will also establish that with proper health promotion activities the miners can manage the diabetes. It will provide a window as to how the miners are managing diabetes.

Conclusion

It can concluded that diseases are prevalent in mining workforce. The diseases affect the lifestyle of the people. With the increase in FIFO people in the mining industry, there has been a growth of life threatening diseases. However, these diseases can be managed by proper interventions and awareness. The research outcome is expected to follow this trend. Thus, mining workforce should be aware of the diseases that are prevalent in the industry. They should take proper precautions to prevent such diseases. The data outcome can be used to validate the health promotion activities and new measures or initiatives, which may need to be undertaken.

References

Colagiuri, R., Cochrane, J. and Girgis, S., 2012. Health and Social Harms of Coal Mining in Local Communities. Beyond Zero Emissions.

Ellis, I.K., Skinner, T.C., Bhana, A., Voon, N., Longley, K. and Skinner, I.E.T., 2014. Health priorities in an Australian mining town: an intercept survey. Rural and remote health, 14(2788).

Joyce, S., Tomlin, S., Somerford, P. and Weeramanthri, T. (2013). Health behaviours and outcomes associated with fly-in fly-out and shift workers in Western Australia. Intern Med J, 43(4), pp.440-444.

Post, D., Daniel, M., Misan, G. and Haren, M. (2015). A workplace health promotion application of the Precede-Proceed model in a regional and remote mining company in Whyalla, South Australia. Intl J of Workplace Health Mgt, 8(3), pp.154-174.

Rajagopalan, S. and Brook, R. (2012). Air Pollution and Type 2 Diabetes: Mechanistic Insights. Diabetes, 61(12), pp.3037-3045.

Sørensen, M., Korsmo-Haugen, H.K., Maggini, M., Kuske, S., Icks, A., Rothe, U., Lindström, J. and Zaletel, J., 2015. Health promotion interventions in type 2 diabetes. Annali dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 51(3), pp.192-198.

Speight, J., Browne, J., Holmes-Truscott, E., Hendrieckx, C. and Pouwer, F. (2012). Diabetes MILES-Australia (management and impact for long-term empowerment and success): methods and sample characteristics of a national survey of the psychological aspects of living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes in Australian adults. BMC Public Health, 12(1).

Wischer, N. (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.onlinediabetes.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Australian-Mining-Review-Article-by-ADOS-44.pdf [Accessed 9 Aug. 2016].