Mumbai: One of India’s leading general insurers, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, has launched the Wellness Index, India’s first ever and one of its kind barometer to capture the wellness quotient of the country. As per a pan-India study commissioned by the general insurer, the Wellness Index of India is 58.3 out of 100, a fairly moderate score for the second-largest populated nation in the world.
The index was launched by Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. in an event in Mumbai. Daniel Kraft of USA, a world-renowned physician-scientist, inventor and innovator in the field of medicine was the guest of honour at the event.
The Wellness Index, measures the well-being and quantifies the current state of wellness among individuals or groups. While many studies are conducted to understand consumer attitude and implementation of Wellness, there is no study that measures Wellness aspect in specific areas and in a scientific manner. With lifestyle-related illnesses on the rise and a clear trend towards adopting Wellness by consumers at large, the ICICI Lombard Wellness Index will serve as a benchmark platform to capture trends and changing consumer needs in this all important area of Wellness.
With regard to the Wellness Index, ICICI Lombard commissioned the study across 11 cities including Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and non-metros such as Ahmedabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Bhubaneshwar. Overall around 2,350 consumers were interviewed, of which 1,175 respondents were among those who indulged in some form of wellness. The comprehensive research was conducted over 115 days.
The Wellness index is further divided into four components:
- Understanding of the Wellness aspect along with its benefits among consumers
- Influencers who impact the adoption and maintenance of Wellness
- Action comprising the current and future wellness practices by consumers and its resultant benefits
- Infrastructure including the physical enablers and barriers to Wellness practices
Maximum score possible for each of the above indices is 25.
Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd, said, “At ICICI Lombard, we have been focusing on the aspect of wellness over the last few years, given our emphasis on introducing best in class risk management and mitigation practices for our customers. Consequently, we have introduced many innovative offerings in the area of Wellness and health assistance. Further, the launch of the wellness index will help us scientifically capture consumer preferences on this important aspect of wellness and thereby introduce relevant and innovative wellness focused solutions.
Some of the key wellness related initiatives taken by ICICI Lombard in the recent past include:
- Workplace Wellness Audit for corporates
- Wellness at work – assessment of ergonomics
- Maternity care program
- Lifestyle modification plans
- Instant health check-ups
- Vaccination drives
- Health Risk Assessment – An Online Portal developed to define the Wellness score of the corporates & individual employees.
- Employee Assistant Programs- Psychological Counselling
- Sound Healing & Laughter Yoga- Techniques to relieve Stress.
- Pre-employments/factory Health check-ups/Compliance based health check-up for Food handlers
- Emergency Medical Ambulance Service with Tele-consultation
- Health Assistance Service
Commenting on the launch, Dr. Kraft said, “Globally, Wellness is fast gaining significant importance in consumer’s life. I clearly see a trend in developed economies like the US, in Europe where healthcare companies including insurers are increasingly focusing on playing a key role in keeping their customers healthy through risk mitigation practices. I am excited to see companies like ICICI Lombard taking the lead here in India to introduce such best practices through initiatives such as the Wellness Index.”
Key takeaways from the study:
Understanding Index: 19.8
- Long term impact and an active life found to be most important factors
- With the imbalance in lifestyle issues on the rise, mental peace is mostly desired and wellness is perceived to be the way to achieve this
- ‘Preventive illness’ and ‘balanced nutrition’ attributed lowest importance (give the individual score out of … here) by respondents
Influence Index: 13.6
- An individual’s desire (give individual score out of…) to be healthy is the prime driver to adopting Wellness activities
- Social image and societal factors are strong influencers to practice Wellness (individual scores out of…)
- Weight gain was the least important factor impacting the behaviour towards Wellness (individual…)
Action Index: 17.4
- High scores (how much) and importance attached to physical health as a basic requirement to achieve better mental health
- Activities such as regular walks & gymming along with adequate sleep are the most preferred activities for achieving Wellness (give values)
- The survey also reveals that need to manage mental stress in our current lifestyle is important as such respondents included Yoga and Meditation in the preferred physical activities (values)
- The study also showed an uptick in terms of preference of activities that can be undertaken at home, office or locations based on personal convenience and lifestyle
Infrastructure Index: 7.5 (give values wherever possible)
- Highlighting the metro and non-metro divide, the study revealed that wellness related infrastructure seems to be relatively easily available in non-metros
- On the contrary, in metros, quality of equipment at gyms is not considered as adequate
- Proximity of Infrastructure to residential areas (fitness centre, gym or Joggers Park) is key trigger for people to use them and ensure regular implementation of their health and wellness.
