What do we spend about 90, 000 hours doing on average during our lifetime? More than 13 years consecutively or about 15% of our total lifetime? And for many of us, it currently occupies more than half of our waking hours? The answer is work.

Since work comprises an essential component of our everyday lives, it makes sense to work towards our workplaces becoming hubs of health. What we do at work matters and will impact on our health throughout our lifespan.

Lifestyle Medicine is about preventing, treating and reversing lifestyle related diseases through nutrition, physical activity, sleep, mental wellbeing and the avoidance of risky substances¹. All these areas are influenced by our working environment for the improvement or to the detriment of our health.

Occupational Medicine is a specialist field, that is closely aligned to Lifestyle Medicine, but with the different focus of the effects of work on health and health on work². Like Lifestyle Medicine, it is also concerned with prevention, causation, hazards and risks, and particularly risk mitigation due to work and industry. Prior to the twentieth century, work was seen as a means to provide the essentials in life – food and shelter and it wasn’t until half a century ago, that employee health and safety have gained importance.

More recently, research is informing employers that investing in employee wellbeing, not just meeting their health and safety legal obligations, is worthwhile. New Zealand Institute of Economic Research data cites that for every dollar employers invest in employee wellbeing, they receive on average eight dollars return! In some cases, a twelve dollar return³. In short, having a healthy workplace is good for business. This gain is through less employee absenteeism, presenteeism, (sick at work), and recruitment costs and greater productivity.