Promoting public health in the workplace
The workplace is a favorable environment for the development of prevention and health promotion actions for the benefit of employees, and employers can thus play a decisive role in the health of their employees. Due to the time spent at work by employees, the workplace is a real opportunity to promote health-promoting behaviors such as, for example, smoking cessation, physical activity, breaking a sedentary lifestyle, a balanced diet , and opens up various opportunities depending on the sector.
The first theme dealt with concerns quitting smoking, following the success of the Tobacco Free Month operation with a number of employers. During the last edition of Mois sans tabac in 2021, nearly 5,000 structures registered on the site dedicated to them and ordered the tools (posters, video leaflets, campaign 3989) made available by Public Health France. This showed the willingness of these structures in their capacity as employers to strengthen their actions for the promotion of health within their entities.
Today, Public Health France is launching the platform “Employers for Health”. Its vocation is to promote and increase the employer’s accountability for the health of its employees. The employer will also be able to promote its commitment to its employees.
In order to support them throughout the year, Public Health France via the “Employers for Health” platform provides them with appropriate tools to deploy a health prevention and promotion policy within their structure, at a pace that suits them. The aim is to encourage and help employers to build their strategy to improve the health and well-being of their employees and to guide them at all stages of its implementation by facilitating access to all documents (posters, leaflets, videos) developed by Public Health France. These may be made available to employees by the employer structure to improve their health and well-being.
This platform is intended to deal with all the themes related to addictions and all the themes of prevention and health promotion in the years to come (diet, physical activity, mental health, etc.).
What were the attitudes of smokers during the health crisis?
Santé publique France is today publishing a summary of several qualitative and quantitative studies concerning the attitudes of smokers during the health crisis linked to COVID-19.
The main results show that:
- The proportion of daily smokers wishing to quit in the 1st half of 2020, estimated at nearly 60%, was similar to that of previous years.
- For the majority of smokers residing in metropolitan France, the health crisis had not influenced their consumption, nor their motivation to quit smoking. For the remaining minority, the evolution of tobacco consumption during the pandemic was very dependent on the professional situation (teleworking, job loss) and the level of stress felt during the health crisis.
- Smokers who identified cigarettes as a way to relieve stress tended to smoke more in times of crisis.
In addition, the motivations and obstacles were also studied:
- Health, cost of smoking and fatigue with addiction are the top three reported motivations for quitting smoking in 2020 and 2021
- Smokers wishing to quit mainly feared withdrawal symptoms (weight gain, irritability, etc.), a reduction in social ties and the loss of support provided by cigarettes.
- Despite a very solitary and fatalistic perception of stopping, relying on willpower alone, they were very sensitive to the support of those around them and to the provision of support tools.
To find out more: Attitudes of smokers during the health crisis linked to COVID-19: summary of qualitative and quantitative studies
A specific device to encourage smokers to have a No Tobacco Day
On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day and at the end of the “Welcome to a life without tobacco” denormalization campaign, Public Health France is deploying, on social networks and with its partners, a specific system on May 31 in order to propose a No Tobacco Day for smokers.
In order to best help them, a calendar to be inserted in the diary application of their smartphone is offered to them. Thus, they will receive notifications to motivate them, advise them and encourage them to hold on throughout the day. These messages will also be relayed on social networks.
In addition, dedicated media have been sent to partners so that they can relay the system:
- A video tutorial to subscribe to the May 31 calendar
- A message introducing World No Tobacco Day
- 3 posts / videos with tips and support messages
