Doing What's Best? Health Behaviors of Medical Staff

Raanan,O., Gelbart, O., Shalish,Y., Rubinstein,D., Itzhaki,M., Siebzehner,M. (2008) Doing What's Best? Health Behaviors of Medical Staff.(Poster) International Nursing Research Conference, Facing the Challenge of Health Care Systems in Transition, Jerusalem, Israel

There is a well known relationship between health behaviors and their affect on physical/mental health. Unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, lack of physical activity and poor diet influence the incidence of cardiovascular disease and malignant neoplasm. After being exposed to patients' morbidity and mortality, it would be expected that hospital staff would engage in healthier lifestyles to maintain well-being. This study focused on measuring their health behaviors

Objective: Comparing health behaviors of nurses with those of administrative and auxiliary personnel (AAP) in a large medical center

Methodology: The study included 776 nurses and 624 AAP who completed self-reported questionnaires. The questionnaires contained demographic data and questions related to five health behaviors - nutrition, smoking, physical activity, oral hygiene, and screening tests

Results: Nutrition: Nurses as compared to AAPs eat breakfast less frequently

(54% vs68%, c²=36.35, p<.001), eat meals containing meat/poultry less often (61% vs. 74%, c²=41.02, p<.001) and don't eat at fixed hours (40% vs. 66%, c²=100.45, p<.001). Smoking: There was a lower percentage of smokers among nurses than AAPs (25% vs. 34% c²=16.06, p<.001 ). More nurses had quit smoking than AAPs (17% vs. 11%). Physical Activity (PA): Fewer nurses engaged in physical activity than AAPs (49% vs. 61%, c²=21.29, p<.001). Screening tests: The majority of female nurses and AAPs believe that the PAP smear is necessary for all women above age of 20 (80%, 83%, respectively). In spite of their awareness, less nurses preformed pap smears as compared to AAPs (31% vs. 22% c²=13.48, p = .001)

Conclusions

Health workers don't necessarily exhibit positive health behaviors

 The two sample populations demonstrated different health behaviors in spite of the fact that both sectors work in the same hospital

 Health behavior attitudes are correlated with actual health behavior