. Jafar F. Alarjan; . Omar S. Hindawi; . Lawrence W. Judge; . Ziad A. Aleyadh; . David. M. Bellar
Volume 5, Issue 2 , March 2015, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
Background: The health status of medical practitioners can potentially impact their abilityto counsel patients. The purpose of the study was to examine the prevalence of obesity andbehaviors ...
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Background: The health status of medical practitioners can potentially impact their abilityto counsel patients. The purpose of the study was to examine the prevalence of obesity andbehaviors associated with the development of metabolic disease among medical practitionersin the country of Jordan. Materials and Methods: The participants were 748 (male n = 285,32.3 years ± 7.3, female n = 463, 29.7 years ± 5.7) randomly selected pharmacists, nurses,physicians, medical lab technicians, and radiation specialists from a variety of medicalinstitutions in Jordan. A short 25‑item validated instrument was chosen for this investigation.After the survey was administered and data were tabulated, one‑way analysis of varianceand Pearson’s Chi‑square analysis were conducted to examine differences in reported riskbehaviors (low physical activity [PA], smoking) and obesity by gender, age and medicalspecialty. Results: Descriptive analysis revealed that 20.9% of the participants self‑reported assmokers of cigarettes, 47.9% were either overweight or obese, and 52.9% reported no days ofplanned PA on average per week. The results suggested a difference in body mass index (BMI)classification (F = 17.9, P ≤ 0.001) and smoking (F = 5.33, P = 0.021) by age. Mean ageassociated with being underweight was 26.4 years for normal weight 29.3 years for overweight31.6 years and finally for obese was 34.5 years. Chi‑square test resulted in differences bygender(2 > 50, P ≤ 0.001)forBMI (males: 26.4 ± 3.7; females: 24.6 ± 3.7),PA (males no plannedPA 61.1%, females 47.9%) and smoking (males 43.1% smokers, females 7.1%). Researchersdiscovered that medical specialty was related to differences in reported smoking (2 = 26.5,P ≤ 0.001) and days of planned PA (2 = 24.2, P = 0.019). Conclusions: Within the populationof medical practitioners there is still a high incidence of obesity and risk behaviors associatedwith metabolic diseases. It also appears thatthese incidence rates are greater amongmen, with increasing age, and among certainmedical specialties.