Beware of Attendance Bonuses tied to Sickness Absence!

A tribunal case has found that a bonus scheme linked to attendance was discriminatory. In the case of Land Registry v Houghton, the employer operated a discretionary bonus scheme where any employee who received a formal warning for sickness absence would not be able to receive it. However, a number of employees were disabled, meaning… Read More

Is it a Tardis or a Health Assessment?

If you spot a space-age contraption littering your reception area, there is every chance your company has joined the craze for health kiosks. These all-in-one devices allow staff to self-test for a variety of factors and then produce an actionable plan on how to manage any conditions they detect, and includes: Blood pressure; Weight; BMI;… Read More

Primary Care & Weight Reduction Interventions: A Happy Marriage?

Research Paper Title Access to Weight Reduction Interventions for Overweight and Obese Patients in UK Primary Care: Population-based Cohort Study. Objectives To investigate access to weight management interventions for overweight and obese patients in primary care. Setting UK primary care electronic health records. Participants A cohort of 91,413 overweight and obese patients aged 30-100 years was sampled from the Clinical… Read More

What do you know about Exercise-induced Anaemia?

A forgotten cause of iron deficiency anaemia in young adults, so writes Marjan Wouthuyzen-Bakker and Sander van Assen in the British Journal of General Practice: Iron deficiency anaemia (lDA) is a common finding in general practice. The prevalence of IDA in the general population is around 2% and rises to >5% in pre-menopausal females. The presenting symptoms of IDA vary,… Read More

Smart Phone Apps for Asthma: Any Quality Assurance Issues?

Research Paper Title The Evolution of Mobile Apps for Asthma: An Updated Systematic Assessment of Content and Tools. Background Interest in mobile apps that support long-term conditions such as asthma is matched by recognition of the importance of the quality and safety of apps intended for patient use. We assessed how changes over a 2-year… Read More

What’s the Real Secret to Weight Loss?

The below article, written by Sue Dunlevy – National Health Correspondent for the News Corps Australia Network, is about sugar which initiated a variety of responses (Reader Replies to, What’s the Real Secret to Weight Loss). Three things I note from the article: Moderation: noted in the reader replies; and Physical Activity: not mentioned at… Read More

Can Healthy People Gain from Health Apps?

Yes (Iltifat Husain): A health app is a piece of smartphone software that purports to offer the user some health benefit. Many of these apps are aimed at people with diagnoses; for example, they teach the correct use of an asthma inhaler or collect blood pressure results by syncing wirelessly with a blood pressure monitor. But many are aimed at… Read More