Chronic disease risk factors among hospital employees: A cross-sectional study in Türkiye

Chronic diseases have become a significant public health problem with the prolongation of human life. There are four main behavioral risk factors for mortality. This study evaluated the significant risk factors for chronic diseases in university hospital employees.

The cross-sectional study population consisted of hospital employees working at Gazi University Hospital for at least one year. The sample size was calculated to be 285, with a 100% response rate. The study's independent variables were age, gender, educational status, working department, and presence of chronic diseases. Dependent variables were smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity, and body mass index (BMI) categories. Data on participants' characteristics, habits, and behaviors were obtained from the hospital system or with open-ended questions. Their body weight and height were measured. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess physical inactivity.

The smoking prevalence of hospital employees was 41.8%. Regular alcohol use was 19.3%. Based on the BMI values obtained, 37.9% of the participants were pre-obese, and 18.2% were obese. According to the results of the IPAQ, 13.7% were inactive. The prevalence of smoking was 50.4%, alcohol consume 11.6%, physical inactivity 50.4%, and overweight 65.3% among those who graduated from high school or lower. In contrast, the prevalences were 35.4%, 25.0%, 69.5%, and 49.4%, respectively, among those who graduated from university or higher. A one-unit increase in age of participants without chronic disease increased BMI by 1.06 times (p<0.05). When individuals with a high school education or lower are taken as the reference group, it was found that physical inactivity is 1.78 times higher among those with a university degree or higher (p<0.05).

The effect of education level on health habits and behaviors should be considered in terms of the target group and content of preventive health programs and awareness-raising studies.