Covid-19 pandemic has impacted people’s attitudes to health and wellbeing, research suggests
An estimated 17 million Brits want to take action to improve their long-term health and wellbeing, a new study from Simplyhealth has revealed.
The survey of 2000 showed that one in five (19%) want to take better care of their health, improve their lifestyle and make smarter health decisions overall, something spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A resounding eight in 10 (84%) said they believe they have a "responsibility to take better care of themselves" to support the NHS in 2021, with 50% of Brits taking action to improve their long-term health doing so because of the impact it has on their families, local communities and the NHS.
Two in five (44%) said they plan to take on at least one New Year's resolution for 2021 - half of them want to improve their long-term health and around a quarter were doing so to benefit their families.
Almost half (47%) want to lose weight or improve their fitness (46%) and 28% want to improve their diet.
Catherine Rutland, clinical director at Simplyhealth, said: "2020 reinvented our relationship with our personal health. While employees are more cognisant than ever about the strains on their health and wellbeing, the pandemic continues to create additional challenges. Now more than ever, employers are seeing their staff grappling to juggle work and home life, and with the added uncertainty of further lockdown measures, stress and anxiety will likely increase. As we continue to navigate the pandemic throughout 2021, it is vital employee health and wellbeing is front of mind for organisations across the country."
Romana Abdin, chief executive at Simplyhealth, added: "Our founding belief, nearly 150 years ago, was that good health is for everyone, and a key part of that is the importance of health and wellbeing in the workplace. Employers have a large and important role to play in keeping their employees well every day. At Simplyhealth we are proud to make it easier for them to do this through their employee benefits offering.
"It is why we launched our free health and wellbeing app, SimplyMe in 2020; to help people take direct control of their everyday health."
The SimplyMe app, launched last October, analyses health of individuals across five categories - mind, heart, sleep, weight and activity - and gives personalised insights and guidance via a dashboard.
In partnership with sports and community charity Sported, for every new sign-up to the app throughout January 2021, Simplyheath will donate £5 and another £5 for those who ‘check in' on their mood 10 times from their home screen during the month.
