Gyeonggi Province will conduct a pilot project called the ‘Vascular Health Program’ targeting workers at 610 workplaces within the province this year.
The Vascular Health Program is a project that observes and manages vascular health indicators such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels that fall outside the normal range for workers for at least three months, while providing health information.
Gyeonggi Province will operate the program according to the workplace situation, categorizing workplaces as follows: ▲‘Continuous Management Type’ for workplaces where both worker health consultations and health promotion programs are possible ▲‘Basic Type’ for workplaces where worker health consultations are possible ▲‘Environment Creation Type’ for workplaces interested in workers’ vascular health but where health consultations or health promotion program operations are difficult.
The Continuous Management Type supports not only the provision of health consultation educational materials and capacity-building training for health managers as in the Basic Type, but also intensive management of vascular health indicators for three months by providing incentives for blood pressure measurement, hospital visits, and weight loss.
The Environment Creation Type provides disease management promotional materials and educational promotional videos that can be permanently placed and promoted within the workplace.
Gyeonggi Province will hold an online briefing session over two days on the 26th and 27th of this month for companies interested in operating the Vascular Health Program, followed by recruitment of pilot workplaces for the program.
Companies wishing to attend the online briefing session must submit an application to the Gyeonggi Province Hypertension and Diabetes Regional Education Center by the 21st of this month, and companies wishing to operate the Vascular Health Program must submit their applications by the 31st.
Gyeonggi Province will announce the pilot workplaces on April 7.
Lee Sun-young, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Hypertension and Diabetes Regional Education Center (Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Ajou University School of Medicine), said, “Myocardial infarction and stroke are major causes of death in Korea, and continuous treatment of preceding diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, as well as improvement of health behaviors, are important. However, the disease management level of major workers in their 30s and 40s in Korea is below 50%, which is low. It is urgent for workplaces, where most of the day is spent, to actively take an interest in managing workers’ vascular health,” encouraging workplace participation.
Kim Jeong-il, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Health and Medical Policy Division, said, “The Vascular Health Program will strengthen the capacity of health managers at workplaces in the province and support workers’ awareness improvement and self-management levels regarding cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. We will do our best to promote cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease prevention and management projects that residents can feel, laying the foundation for lifelong health.”
Meanwhile, a follow-up survey of 1,091 workers who participated in last year’s pilot project showed that 165 workers who regularly measured their blood pressure and received consultations saw their average systolic blood pressure decrease from 134.0 mmHg to 127.9 mmHg, and their average diastolic blood pressure decrease from 85.7 mmHg to 81.7 mmHg.
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