An exploratory case study on employee health and wellbeing: Indian railways case study

An exploratory case study on employee health and wellbeing: Indian railways case study

In this paper, we are presenting initial case study results of employee health & wellbeing baseline measurement of Southern Railways. 122 employees from management cadre voluntarily participated in the study. The data collection involved three specific stages of health & wellbeing validation, based on lipid profiles, three month blood sugar level, kidney function, blood pressure, heart rate, self reported eating habit, self reported exercise routine and a bio-impedance measurement. The participants were given with a survey instrument to fill-in their daily intake of food pattern and this information was entered into a software application to compute nutritional levels. This was the first level of validation. The second level of validation was collecting blood samples and analysing the samples for various parameters such as lipids and sugar levels pathologically. The third level of validation included people categorised as non-diabetic tested for body composition of fat masses using a bio-impedance monitor. The analyses of data using these three combinations of data clearly indicated that majority of the participants are either suffering with excess fat masses or over the normal acceptable BMI levels for Indian population. Further, the data clearly indicated that the intake of calories is way above than what has been expended through physical activities. Over half the participants exhibited either symptoms of diabetes or hypertension or both. We present these results in this paper, and highlight a preliminary intervention program that has been instituted to these participants. We are also highlighting some of the adverse influences that can present to the organisation as a result of the health & wellbeing issues observed.