Prevalence of obesity and behaviors associated with the development of metabolic disease among medical practitioners in Jordan

BACKGROUND: The health status of medical practitioners can potentially impact their ability to counsel patients. The purpose of the study was to examine the prevalence of obesity and behaviors associated with the development of metabolic disease among medical practitioners in 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 medical institutions 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 variance and Pearson's Chi-square analysis were conducted to examine differences in reported risk behaviors (low physical activity [PA], smoking) and obesity by gender, age and medical specialty. RESULTS: Descriptive analysis revealed that 20.9% of the participants self-reported as smokers of cigarettes, 47.9% were either overweight or obese, and 52.9% reported no days of planned 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 age associated with being underweight was 26.4 years for normal weight 29.3 years for overweight 31.6 years and finally for obese was 34.5 years. Chi-square test resulted in differences by gender (χ(2) > 50, P ≤ 0.001) for BMI (males: 26.4 ± 3.7; females: 24.6 ± 3.7), PA (males no planned PA 61.1%, females 47.9%) and smoking (males 43.1% smokers, females 7.1%). Researchers discovered that medical specialty was related to differences in reported smoking (χ(2) = 26.5, P ≤ 0.001) and days of planned PA (χ(2) = 24.2, P = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Within the population of medical practitioners there is still a high incidence of obesity and risk behaviors associated with metabolic diseases. It also appears that these incidence rates are greater among men, with increasing age, and among certain medical specialties.