Promoting Public Health in the Workplace

The workplace is an ideal setting for implementing preventive measures and health promotion initiatives that benefit employees, and employers can thus play a decisive role in the health of their workforce. Given the amount of time employees spend at work, the workplace offers a real opportunity to promote health-promoting behaviors such as smoking cessation, physical activity, reducing sedentary behavior, and a balanced diet, and opens up various opportunities depending on the sector.

The first topic addressed is smoking cessation, following the success of the “Smoke-Free Month” campaign among a number of employers. During the latest edition of “Month Without Tobacco” in 2021, nearly 5,000 organizations registered on the dedicated website and ordered the resources (posters, brochures, videos, and the 3989 campaign) made available by Santé publique France. This demonstrated these organizations’ commitment, as employers, to strengthening their health promotion efforts within their workplaces.

Today, Santé publique France is launching the “Employers for Health” platform. Its purpose is to encourage and increase employers’ accountability regarding their employees’ health. Employers will also be able to highlight their commitment to their employees.

To support them throughout the year, Santé publique France, via the “Employers for Health” platform, provides them with tailored tools to implement a health prevention and promotion policy within their organization at a pace that suits them. The goal is to encourage and assist employers in developing their strategy to improve the health and well-being of their employees and to guide them through every stage of its implementation by facilitating access to all materials (posters, brochures, videos) developed by Santé publique France. These materials can be made available to employees by the employer to improve their health and well-being.

This platform is designed to address all topics related to addiction and all aspects of prevention and health promotion in the coming years (diet, physical activity, mental health, etc.).

What were smokers’ attitudes during the health crisis?

Santé publique France is releasing today a summary of several qualitative and quantitative studies on smokers’ attitudes during the COVID-19 health crisis.

The main findings show that:

• The proportion of daily smokers wishing to quit smoking in the first half of 2020, estimated at nearly 60%, was similar to that of previous years.

• For the majority of smokers living in mainland France, the health crisis did not influence their smoking habits or their motivation to quit. For the remaining minority, changes in tobacco use during the pandemic were highly dependent on their employment situation (working from home, job loss) and the level of stress experienced during the health crisis.

• Smokers who identified cigarettes as a means of relieving stress tended to smoke more during the crisis.

In addition, motivations and barriers were also examined:

• Health, the cost of tobacco, and weariness with addiction are the three main motivations for quitting smoking, as reported in 2020 and 2021

• Smokers wishing to quit were primarily concerned about withdrawal symptoms (weight gain, irritability, etc.), a reduction in social connections, and the loss of the support provided by smoking.

• Despite a very solitary and fatalistic perception of quitting—relying solely on willpower—they were highly receptive to support from those around them and to the availability of support tools.

For more information: Smokers’ attitudes during the COVID-19 health crisis: a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative studies