The Philcare Wellness Index

Being healthy is more than just being physically fit and free from sickness. There’s actually more to it than what we think and this is something that some Filipinos are hardly aware of. Since we love ourselves and our family, we should know how important overall wellness (being healthy in body and mind) is and strive to attain this.
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Top HMO provider in the Philippines, PhilCare, has this PhilCare Wellness Box containing items that show or symbolize total wellness of being and illustrates their approach to health care. The box consists of Moringa Detox Tea, Smart Check-up Card worth P499, Oatmeal Soap, Calamansi Soap, Olive Mist, Seaweed Mask, and Jump Rope.

They recently introduced the Philcare Wellness Index so as to go beyond its usual role of giving medical and hospitalization benefits to members, and instead be able to determine the citizens’ state of health in a more holistic approach. This wellness index which happens to be the first wellness index in the Philippines, involved a face-to-face interview with 1,200 respondents from Metro Manila and other key cities all over the country. They were interviewed about their lifestyle and the nutritional, physical, psychological, and medical aspects of their lives.

The study was benchmarked with similar studies conducted in developed countries. Dr. Fernando Paragas from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore was commissioned by PhilCare to design, manage, and analyze this survey. The PhilCare Wellness Index turns out to be an eye-opener on Filipinos’ understanding of what healthy living is. It emphasized the contradictions with how we envision what is healthy and the things we actually do to become healthy.

The results of the study are quite interesting. For one it reveals that we Filipinos are not really as healthy as we would like to believe and we have a tendency to only take our health seriously once we get sick. The survey also showed that Filipinos could be in denial about their health as shown by 54% of the respondents believing that they’re in good health and that their weight is ideal for their height but it turns out that only 45% fit the normal category applying to the Asian Body Mass Index range. The PhilCare Wellness Index also showed that 44% believe that they know what a balanced diet is; 70% eat breakfast regularly; 60% eat fruits and vegetables daily; 27% regularly eat fried or fatty food; 21% love eating sugary foods and drinks; and 15% eat junk food daily.

The study also said that 85% enjoy a good work-life balance while 41.1% experience slight stress. To handle stress, many Filipinos resort to binge drinking after work. The study also showed that compared to married couples, widowed and separated Filipinos are having more sex. A married person has sex 2.95 times per week, a widowed person 4.33 a week, and a separated person is slightly higher at 4.38. The study tells that married couples should work more to build the intimacy in the marriage because a healthy sex life equates to psychological health.

When it comes to Filipinos’ behavior to getting medical care, 59% of respondents said that they can easily seek medical attention when they get sick but 74% self-medicate.

These findings of the Philcare Wellness Index only goes to show that there is more to health than just giving people medical services when they get sick. It has successfully reached its aim or goal of measuring and uncovering the Filipinos’ sense of well-being. Because this study has yielded some really interesting findings, it can definitely be used as a tool to inform Filipinos about the true meaning of being healthy. This wellness index can likewise be a guide as to how we can be healthier, not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. It will definitely help us to be more mindful of our health and those of our loved ones.

To know more about the PhilCare Wellness Index, do visit their website. You can also follow their social media pages for exclusive updates:

• Website: www.philcare.com.ph
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/philcareph
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/philcareph
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/philcareph