Nutrition Department holds first Wellness Day

By Mercy J. Barwecho and Philip Etyang

The Nutrition Department at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) held its first ever Nutrition Wellness Day on the 14th of April, 2023.

The event attracted over 100 participants who included members of staff and their dependents, who partook in the activities of the day which included nutrition assessment, counseling education, referral and follow-up.

Participants brazed the rain and cold to attend the event held at the open-space on the 2nd floor, Tower Block between 08:00AM and 3:00PM.

According to Mercy Barwecho, Principal Nutrition and Dietetics Officer at KNH and the Acting Head of Department, Nutrition, the activity is in the departments performance contract and it aimed to create awareness among KNH staff and their dependents so as to be equipped with all round health wellness information.

“The Kenyatta National Hospital Performance Contract, Culture Change and Management Initiatives is one of the cross-cutting activities that led to the introduction of thematic days including the Nutrition Wellness Day for KNH Staff and dependents,” she said.

The star attraction of the event was the InBody S10 machine which identifies excess fluid while assessing cellular health. The machine uses attachable electrodes to test patients by gently clipping the patient’s fingers and ankles. For patients with paralyzed or amputated limbs, the machine uses adhesive type of electrodes to perform the tests.

The machine which was donated to KNH by the supplier specifically for the event, sends safe, low-level currents through the body using the hand and foot electrodes. The impedance the currents encounter is measured, and from there, the body composition is derived.

Mr. Joseph Wainana (name changed to preserve identity), a member of staff at KNH who underwent the body composition testing using the InBody S10 machine, said he was very impressed with the precision of the machine in determining his musclefat ratio, segmental lean analysis, segmental water ratio and general nutritional information.

“I am very impressed with what the InBody S10 machine can do. Within 90 seconds, I was able to get results for my body composition, Muscle-fat analysis and segmental lean analysis all printed on this paper!” he said.

Under body composition analysis, the machine tests the intracellular water, extracellular water, protein mass, mineral mass and body fat mass. For the muscle-fat analysis, the weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, percent body fat and BMI are tested. While the segmental lean analysis tests the amount of fats on the limbs and the trunk.

The supplier of the machine was kind enough to donate the machine for more testing of staff and their dependents at the KNH Prime Care Center for the entire week starting 17th -21st April.

Ms. Barwecho attributes the significant proportion of current healthcare spending to noncommunicable chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and cancer. She says incorrect lifestyle, in terms of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, is associated with the possibility of becoming overweight or obese: all of these are recognized risk factors associated with chronic noncommunicable diseases.

“An unhealthy lifestyle reduces physical function, which negatively affects work performance, decreases quality of life and increases the use of prescribed medicines. Therefore, these factors can hinder individual opportunities to extend workers’ active working time and at the same time increase the number of days of absence from work due to illness, reduce productivity and can lead to a premature loss of experienced workers,” she said.

Lifestyle-related risk factors are changeable, but achieving a substantial change in daily habits is difficult. Workplaces have great potential to change personal lifestyle choices: people of working age spend much of their active time together at work which can contribute to change as they will motivate and support each other. It has been shown that an appropriate initiative to promote a healthy lifestyle in the workplace has increased health, increased productivity and had a good costeffect ratio.

Research shows that employee health status directly influences work behavior, attendance and on-the-job performance. High-performance companies clearly understand the human-capital-driven health and work behavior equation. That’s why more than 75 percent of highperforming companies regularly measure health status as a viable component of their overall risk management strategy which should be advocated in the institution as body composition is cheaper and affordable cost employees should be encouraged for frequent checks of monthly or quarterly depending on the health risk.

“Promoting employee well-being will improve health, performance and the bottom line will help organization’s lower health care costs and develop a healthier workplace culture. It summarizes the latest research on wellness and prevention,” Ms. Barwecho added.

One way to build competitive advantage for the organization is to improve the health status and well-being of the employees. The latest research shows that health, work behavior and the value of human capital are linked. Simply, employee health status directly influences employee work behavior, work attendance and on-the-job performance. Therefore, developing healthier employees will result in a more productive workforce programs and their impact on the workforce.

“When employees feel more in control of their professional and personal lives, they are more engaged and have more of a connection to the organization and each other. Every company has its own way of catering to its employees’ needs. One way of promoting this culture in KNH would be to create incentives to stay healthy,” she said.

KNH staff and dependants being briefed on how the inBody s10 machine operates at the tower block on the 14th of April 2023

PHOTO |STEVE ARWA

Employers that invest in shifting their culture to one of well-being are able to build and sustain better wellbeing over time and achieve even greater benefits in terms of reduced health care costs as well as greater productivity and performance. The key components of sustaining quality of life are: Physical Activity, Nutritionhealthy eating.

Medical personel drawn from the Nutrition Department observe a participant who was undergoing a full body analysis

PHOTO |STEVE ARWA

MAIN PHOTO |STEVE ARWA A KNH staff member undergoes body composition, Muscle-fat analysis and Segmental lean analysis during the Nutrition Wellness Day on the 14th of April 2023