Diabetes Prevention at Work

People with diabetes have to live with constant limitations every day, including at work. Diabeteic patients face unique challenges at the worksite but these can be easily overcome with education and small adjustments to the wrokplace.

In this episode we discuss how employers can maximize the health and productivity of their workers with diabetes by being more aware of common concerns in the workplace. 

Offering employee benefits such as diabetes prevention program can reduce absenteeism and presenteeism; and increase productivity. 

To learn how we can make accomodations for diabetic workers and even prevent diabetes in the workplace I have a special guest Ana Almedia- DoRosario, who is Community Outreach Coordinator for Lifespan. 

In this episode you can learn:

What is Diabetes and how does it affect patients lives?

Tips to manage diabetes and pre-diabetes.

What is the CDC Diabetes Prevention Program for Workplaces 

How does the Diabetes Prevention Program Work?

Benefits of adding Diabetes Prevention Program as an employee benefit.

Our guest Ana Almeida-DoRosario is a Community Outreach Coordinator for Lifespan. She is a certified Group Fitness Instructor and Health Coach. She is a certified Group Fitness Instructor certificate and Health coach. Much of her work has been focused on coordinating health and wellness programs in public health and youth development settings. Under her leadership, Lifespan’s Diabetes Prevention Program was the 2022 recipient of the Grace Diaz Blue Light Award.

You can reach her at:

www.linkedin.com/in/ana-almeida-dorosario/
www.lifespan.org/diabetesprevention

If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com

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You can learn more about Aesha at https://www.aeshatahir.com

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My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!

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Transcript

  Welcome to the nine to five wellness podcast,  a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement.  I'm your host Aesha Tahir. 

 Hi, everyone.  Today for our LinkedIn Live, I am going to be talking about diabetes, diabetes in the workplace.  So. People with diabetes live with the disease all day, every day, including at work.  Although diabetic patients may face unique challenges at the work site, these challenges can be overcome easily with the help of an informed employer.

And employers can maximize the health and productivity of their workers with diabetes by being more aware of common concerns in the workplace. place. So that was my thought process behind, , this linkedin live and this podcast interview. So that we can bring more knowledge to employers about how to make accommodations and adjustments to the work environment or schedule to reduce absenteeism  and present presenteeism,  increase productivity. 

concentration and energy levels for those workers. And it would also help the employers reduce the chance of on the job injury and help them stay in compliance with the law too. So to learn how we can make these accommodations for the diabetic workers and even prevent diabetes in the workplace,  Which should be the goal.

I have a special guest with me. Anna Almeida Dorisario, who is a community outreach coordinator for Lifespan. She's a certified group fitness instructor and certified health coach. Much of her work has been focused on coordinating health and wellness programs in public health and youth development settings.

 Under her leadership, Lifespan's Diabetes Prevention Program was the recipient of Grace Diaz Blue Light Award in 2022. So, you know, there's nobody better than her to help us out and learn more about diabetes.  Welcome Anna. How are you?  I'm doing well. Thank you for having me today.  I'm so glad that you could make it and you know we're doing this.

Thanks for coming. , I would like to start with like just the basics of diabetes like diabetes 101. How do we define diabetes? What is it? 

Yeah, so that's a great question. I think it's good to have that perspective, right? So diabetes is considered a chronic health condition and it affects your body's ability to turn food into energy, right?

So normally what's happening is when we eat,  our bodies break down the food or most of the food that we eat and it turns it into glucose or blood sugar, right? And it releases it into our bloodstream. And then we're utilizing that as energy to go about our day, to do the things that we want to do, whether it, you know, working, exercising, spending time with our kids, spending time with our families, all those things.

When our blood sugar goes up because we've eaten, right, that's a normal process. It signals our pancreas to release the insulin.  And so the insulin acts like a key. Think of it that way to let the blood sugar into our body cells so that we can use that energy.  What happens with diabetes is that that's not happening in a normal way.

So with type one diabetics, your body doesn't make enough insulin.  Okay. With type two diabetics, it means that the body isn't producing enough  insulin. It's not produced, it's not utilizing it the right way. And so our blood sugars go up and they don't come down the way that they should. About 90 to  95 percent of people who have.

Diabetes have type two.  It's the one that's actually preventable. That's the population that I work with. So just something to keep in mind when we're talking about diabetes.  

I like how you just broke down the two types and the most prevalent is the type 2 diabetes, which is preventable and that's key because we're going to talk about it more a little later.

I want to address diabetes in workplace and, is being informed about diabetes and taking care of her diabetic workers. Is it good for business? Why should employers consider adding programs like a diabetes prevention program as an employee benefit? Because, you know, it's a cost.

It's a cost to the workplace. 

Yeah, so I like to keep things in perspective, and when I want to do that, I like to look at numbers. So, just a few quick statistics.  When you're looking at the cost of diabetes nationally in the United States,  specifically, which is where I'm at, 106.

3 billion, or 26 percent of that cost,  is attributed to lost productivity at work, unemployment, from chronic disability  and premature mortality.  So that's just one big number that you can keep , in the back of your mind. Reduced work productivity due to diabetes can account for 35.

8 billion annually in indirect costs.  Same thing with absenteeism or missed work days. It accounts for 5. 4 billion in an annual indirect costs. So that's a lot of money. That's just being, you know,  funneled into the fact that we have folks with diabetes in our workforce. 

Right. 

And  one thing that startled me when I was looking up some of these statistics is if people with diabetes participated in the workforce, just like their peers without diabetes, There would be 2 million more people between the ages of 18 and 65 in the workforce. 

Wow. 2 million people  that aren't working due to diabetes. That's striking for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And then the last one that I'll leave you with is  more. Think of 10 of your employees who may have prediabetes.  Eight of those 10 employees don't know that they have it.  That's scary. Yeah. Because that means they're not managed.

They're not learning to manage it before it becomes full blown diabetes.  So programs like the Diabetes Prevention Program can help to reduce those costs, help to reduce, you know, absenteeism, presenteeism, all of those things that you talked about earlier.  

The fact that, 80 percent of the employees don't know about that, That is, again, another striking statistic.

And that probably is all the more reason to have a program like this. So there's a strong business case, right? For helping employees with diabetes stay healthier.  And although once you have diabetes, I mean, so far, it cannot be cured. It can be managed. well. And I have worked w been able to manage it we  and nutrition.

You kn  to control the blood suga a balanced diet, maintain 

And that's where the well being programs really pay off for employers and employees, because , it's not, we don't want people to just rely on medication all the time. I have, I have worked with people who have been able to get off of their insulin just because.  They were so dedicated and they worked really hard on changing their lifestyle  or they were just you know, taking it as needed.

So it wasn't regular. So  I am really interested in learning more about the diabetes prevention program. What is it? How does it work? What are the goals? Because what if we could stop it in its tracks? Because we know diabetes is a.   It's a lifestyle disease. I like to call it because,  our ancestors, you know, we're so active and we were always working.

We know diabetes was not prevalent. It wasn't as prevalent as it is today. Now that we are leading this sedentary lifestyle, which is leading to this disease. So tell me more about the prevention program. 

Yeah, absolutely. I can definitely do that. So the diabetes prevention program. So first of all, it's an evidence based program that is monitored by the CDC.

So any information that people want regarding the diabetes prevention program, you can always go to the CDC website and find out more. But to give you just a quick snapshot, it's a year long lifestyle change program, going back to what you were saying, lifestyle, right? And what we're looking for is for participants in the program to lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight for the first year of the program.

So this is a year long program, and I know that that sounds scary for most people but it's broken down into two phases. The first is the first half of the program, the first year first half of the year of the program, 

where 

participants are learning how to you know, make those small lifestyle changes and make them become part of their day to day, right?

So every week they're coming and they're deciding on one small change that they're going to make. Like I'm, instead of drinking that Soda three times a day. I'm going to cut it down to two and then I'm going to cut it down to one and then to nothing. And I'm going to drink more water instead. So making those small changes over time and making it a habit because habits take time to develop, right?

So that's what we're focused on in the first half. It's and we're just and we're talking about different topics like not just nutrition, not just physical activity and how to move more. In your day to day, not just when you're exercising, but even, you know, when you're at work you're talking about sleep habits, you're talking about stress management.

We're talking about all these other things that affect our life in the day to day and how to manage that. And like, maybe this week, I don't really have time to cook. So what is my game plan? Planning ahead, like all those things you get to strategize. And the nice thing about the program is that it's in a group setting. 

So you spend a whole year with folks. in a group setting, you're coming in, you have that camaraderie, which is really nice in the workforce. If you're doing that right, if you're doing it with your colleagues, you learn to support one another because you're coming with the same goals and nobody wants to see the other person fail.

Everyone's coming together.  You're struggling this week. They will help you figure out, okay, I couldn't meet my goal. How can I adjust it? Because we want smart goals. Right. So they're really looking at how are we doing this? How are we doing this together? And how is each person individually meeting their goals? 

That's, that's the one thing that I really like about the program is that group camaraderie, even though like you're working on your own individual goals. And the other thing that I just want to point out that I started talking about is it's a year long program. People think it's scary to invest that time for themselves. 

What's really striking to me is.  Initially, you see, I hear that hesitation in people's voices when I'm on the phone with them, telling them about the program.  And you know, they start in the program weekly.  CDC expects you to do weekly for the first 16 weeks and then taper off to monthly for the last six months.

Okay. 

And we do it a little bit differently. So we do it every week for the first four months. So 16 weeks, then we taper off to every other week because people are less likely to drop out that way.  Sure. And then we taper off to every week.  I mean, every month, sorry. And so  when we start tapering off, people are like, wait, no, we're not here next week.

What do you mean? We're not here next week. They get so used to it and they enjoy that camaraderie and that accountability that they get from  having to come back and report back on their goals.  , 

I can totally see like the hesitation at first because a year sounds like such a long time. But I always say this to my corporate clients and also like my individual clients that guess what the year is going to pass no matter what you take action or you don't take action.

It's going to pass.  So either you're improving in that year or you're actually going backwards. So that's your choice right there. If you look at it that way, then you would be like, yeah, I mean, I do want to invest time in this. And the way it's broken down, that's really manageable. 

It's only an hour of your week.  . Exactly. But I know that it would pay off so well for your health and the health of your employees. One of the things that you just mentioned, and I want to highlight it is the not just the time investment, but also that it's not only about nutrition and exercise.

We're going to talk about all the things that are impacting your lifestyle and the A lot of times we just get stuck on this fact, at first it was just exercise and now people are learning. Okay. Nutrition is the biggest part, this biggest component of it. And then we of course want to do more activity too.

Like I say, walking in certain cases, of course, walking can be an exercise form of exercise, but walking is just activity, you know, like it's not. Okay.  structured exercise. You have to have structured exercise program too. So we're learning more and more with these programs and that's another benefit of these programs.

If you are starting this program at your workplace, you can make a huge impact on your workforce. People with diabetes and  probably bringing this kind of education to people without diabetes too, so that they can understand how to prevent it.  I would like to give our listeners some tips, like top three tips or habits that they could actually, implement if they wanted to, starting today, to prevent diabetes.

Yeah, so some quick tips for things you can do at work. One thing, actually I just started this in my own workplace just because I was like I can't be at my desk all day. Starting movement breaks, right. Just to give you an example, we had one participant in one, in a, in a, In the, in our program a few years ago,  and one of her successes was because she was committed to our program and she needed to figure out, you know, between work and kids and parents and all these things, how am I going to fit 150 minutes of activity each week?

Because she was, she was being held accountable to that. So what she did was she grabbed a coworker and said, I need to go for a walk every day after lunch. Will you please join me so I'm not alone?  Before she knew it, she had started a walking club,  right? So people were walking after lunch at work.  That's a nice group exercise, right?

And if all you have is 10 minutes during that time, take the 10 minutes and then you can do the rest of your physical activity another time. So, finding small moments that you can incorporate physical activity.  If you want to do it virtually, find some YouTube videos. I do that sometimes where, you know, there's a good instructor that can keep you moving for a good five, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, however long you have and keep that going.

So that's one thing that you can do. Another one, I kind of, another tip is something that I alluded to before making changes over time is really hard, right? So you want to make it,  small changes over time. And that's something that we preach in our program all of the time. So something as simple as I mentioned soda, and it could be something else.

It could be somebody who's  drinking that  coffee cup full of sugar and whatever else you like to put in your coffee. Right? So how can you reduce the calories from that? Maybe it's making that coffee cup a little smaller or taking less cream and sugar. Replacing that soda with,  you know, with water once a day, twice a day, however you can, you feel you can manage, right?

Another one that I like is your regular size plate. You can buy smaller plates at the store  and just make your plate smaller. So you're eating smaller portions. And I guarantee you, because we've done this with participants before, when we've challenged them to go from their regular size plate to a smaller plate. 

and see  if you're still hungry after eating from that smaller plate.  And we eat with our eyes just as much as we eat with our mouth. It's like, oh my goodness, like this plate looks so full versus a bigger plate, which we're inclined to fill up, right?  

These are really good tips, and I want to highlight the one that you said, like, you know, drinking your coffee.

A lot of people do start their day with coffee, which is, you know, I do too.  Full disclosure, I love my coffee. You need that boost. Yeah, I love my cup of coffee in the morning, but what are you putting in there? Yeah. Like Is it really filled with just sugar, sugary creamer? Because what's important with the diabetes prevention, and then of course people who have diabetes to manage it, we want, want you to understand that it's the sugar levels that are driving your insulin levels.

Sensitivity. So you want your body to be sensitive to insulin, which, which it isn't at this time if you , have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes. So for that to happen, we have to. Try to remove most of the sugar, and when I say sugar, I'm talking about the refined sugar from your diet.

Mm-Hmm. . That includes your coffee creamer, that includes your soda diet or otherwise, because they both impact your body's blood glucose levels the same way. Right. When you're taking in a especially in the form of liquid, although it could be food too. And you know what we see is that the insulin spikes up really high and you want to prevent those insulin spikes in your bloodstream , throughout the day, because that also leads to energy crashes.

And those energy crashes are going to make you really lazy and sluggish. Slow at work, and that's how it's going to prevent you from being productive. So that's the connection that I really want people to understand that. I know sugar and fat is so palatable. Like, you know, it feels good. It feels good when you consume it, but the, the way it acts.

within your body, how it changes your physiology is where it really becomes a problem. So maybe just keeping those things for occasional purposes, you know, I mean, I've switched to black coffee, but you know, if that's not the case for you, maybe put just a little bit of unsweetened creamer to give it a little color.

to make it a little milder so that you can still enjoy it. And movement. Movement is so big. I love the movement concept that you just shared and the story you shared about that client who was asking her co workers to come along with her because that gives you accountability, but there's that power of community, which you talked about even in the program itself, right?

The power of community, because you're not alone. So you're always going to have that support and that support is what's going to carry you through. And you'd be surprised at what people can do when they're in a group because they have support.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I can tell you, like, I recently had an in two interns actually visiting one of our clients.  classes in action. And, you know, they walked in into a day where there was this one participant who  she was struggling,  right? She came in and they were reporting on, you know, how the week went, what their goals were and whether they met those goals. 

And  it was just funny because  it was a similar recurrence every single time. Right. I can't remember the exact details of what that one thing was, but it was, she was just struggling to meet that goal.  And what was nice was that before the lifestyle coach could chime in her peers who had been on this journey with her turned around to her and said, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on a second.

You told us before that in order for X, Y, Z to happen,  you need to do this. Have you been doing this? 

No.  

So they came down on her, but it was like in a loving way and really holding her accountable, right? It was like, this is what you said you would do in order to accomplish this, and you're not doing it.

So if you want to meet that goal,  excuses. And  this was after being in the program for nine months with each other, right? So they feel they can talk to each other and hold each other accountable in that way. Had that been six months before, that conversation would have gone very differently. The coach would have handled it. 

But I think because of the way that the groups come together and people get to know each other and their own goals. And like you said, they don't want to see each other fail. We're in this together.  I'm trying to lose five pounds. You're trying to lose 10 pounds. It doesn't matter. We're in this together, right?

And so they're able to hold each other accountable during the good times.  to celebrate, but also during the tough times when we need that reality check.  Yes. Oh, I love this because the group hold you accountable like that is golden because we, we have blinders, right? We try to commit to stuff and then we can't because life happens but The other people around us, especially in a group, can notice it right away and they brought it up.

I am , with all the information that you're providing us here, I'm thinking this is a great way to build your team, too. This is a team building activity. Yeah, at work. And we know how important teams are at work because, , you're not gonna work alone.  The team has to have that project. So think of this program as actually a team building activity and bring it into your workplace.

So,  Ana, what steps should employers take to add this benefit to their offerings? Like, what are the options? I'm thinking, because you explained a lot of the process, like how it works, but what if an employer wants to bring this program on, what can they do? 

Yeah, so a few things that I would recommend.

First of all, the CDC has an employer and insurer toolkit. that they should check out, right? Because it has, like, a lot of information, probably a lot more than I could offer right now in terms of next steps. Is there a website or Yeah, so the website is cdc. gov  slash diabetes slash prevention.  

Got it. Okay.

I'll include this link in our show notes. 

Yep. And so they are able to go there. They can download the toolkit, look at the information there. But a few things that I would say is look at what your corporate wellness program already is. What are your offerings? Can the Diabetes Prevention program be something that you add to that?

Okay. In our case we're working with a particular employer and what they did was they went through their insurer and the insurer, you know, came to us and asked us to deliver this program on behalf of the employer. Okay. Also consider if you're offering this program because it's a year long program and you want people to commit long term, right? 

Are there incentives that you can give to your participants, to your employees who complete the program? We've seen that be very effective. So in this case, this particular employer opted to offer 500 to anyone who completes the program.  

Wonderful. 

Yeah, that's so that's a nice little bonus that they can get if they complete the program, they put in the work they put into dedication, they get rewarded. 

You can also consider intermittent incentives as well, which is something we do in our program as a standard but I won't get into that here. The other thing to consider is whether you want to offer the program either in person, virtual, or both. And that's obviously going to depend on the company,  the nature of what you're doing, when can you engage folks, right?

And also employee preference. So you might want to put out a survey if you're not sure whether it's better to do it virtual or in person. And then based on that, based on the information that you get from the toolkit, right on the CDC website, virtual You can even look up diabetes prevention programs in your area, just put in your zip code.

So this is for United States. Folks put in your zip code and you'll be able to identify in person programs in your area, but also companies that offer it virtually.  And there's also a distance learning component. I won't get into all, what all that means, but there's a difference between distance learning, which means.

We're logging in at the same time  where there's the lifestyle coach leading the group just like they would in person. And then there's the virtual, which means it's self paced.  So they're a little bit different. But you can explore you know, as you're researching the information, figure out which one is best for your company. 

 I wasn't aware of the distance learning and the virtual component and the difference between the two. So thank you for explaining that. You're welcome. So what I'm  hearing from you is that  they can go, you can go, or the employers can go on the CDC's website and request more information and then from there they assign, like, you are a community outreach professional, so they assign somebody like you to No, 

so you would go and you would search up based on the zip code of where you are located.

Sure. Sure. different programs. So if I just go in, there's a spot where you can put the zip code to identify programs in your area and you will find a listing with contact information and then you can reach out. 

Okay. Okay. And then, and then the work starts from there. They would send their lifestyle professionals out or in person if it's in person or they would set it up virtually.

Okay. You can talk to the, you know, if you're looking to do it in person. the provider in your area, you can talk to them about like, would you be able to do this for our company? And then, you know, you know, go from there and figure out the details.  

Yeah. Yeah. I love the incentives part of the program too, because that definitely would motivate the employees to partake  and complete the program.

Absolutely. And, and in the end, I I think everybody wins with this program, like the employers can save money on health care costs and all the other statistics you mentioned, like in terms of productivity, absenteeism and the cost of presenteeism and employees can be healthier, they can enjoy life and work without the concern or anxiety.

Of, , just constantly thinking about the disease. . 

And one last thing I would mention about that is a bonus is that you're showing your employees that you care about their well being  and because we're, we're addressing so many different things, not just diabetes within the program, right?

Because when we're talking about exercise, sleep, stress, that didn't, that affects. us beyond just diabetes, right? So that's affecting people's health in so many more ways. So to me, it's a great investment.  

Yeah,  it's holistic, right? We're bringing everything in because it's not just one component that affects your blood sugar levels too.

And your diabetes, of course, sleep has to be part of it because if you're Not well rested. You're going to end up eating more sugar during the day. And then the stress plays a huge role. People do a lot of stress eating. And of course, to comfort ourselves, we always reach for high carb, high sugar foods.

That's just the way our primitive brain works. It's not your fault, but you know, just being educated and knowledgeable about it  would be like, , I'm reaching for this, but why am I reaching? Hang on. Stop.   I need to prioritize my health.  And just the way you said,  main reason for implementing a program like this is to show your employees you care.

Employees are your biggest asset, right? Without employees, you're, you know, most of the businesses are are not going to survive. So there you go. That's it. That's the reason why you should have it.  Ana, this was so awesome.  So how can people get in touch with you and Where is your where is Lifespan implementing these programs? Yeah, 

so we are located in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Lifespan Community Health Institute is part of the Lifespan health system. So we're one of the largest health care systems in Rhode Island. And so, My department does a lot of public health work. This is just part of that. And for anyone who's looking to get in touch with me and learn more about it, they can reach me.

My email is kind of long, so we'll make sure to put it in the show notes, but it's the first initial of my first name, A  and then my last name without the hyphen. So A L M E I D A D O R O.  S a r i o at lifespan. org. So it's a Almeida do Rosario at lifespan. org.  

Awesome. And also you're pretty active on LinkedIn, so people can reach out to you, DM you on LinkedIn.

And I'll include your email and the show notes, of course. So that's great. Thank you so much, Anna. Thanks for explaining all of this and sharing. I learned a lot today. I wasn't aware of all the components of the prevention program, although , we know each other for a while now from our  networking community.

So thank you. Thanks for sharing this today. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

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