Predictors of Achieving Recommended Daily Physical Activity Among Anesthesiologists at a Large Tertiary Care Academic Center

BACKGROUND: The goal of the current study was to determine if the daily work patterns of anesthesiologists meet the recommended daily levels of activity. METHODS: Attending and resident anesthesiologists at a tertiary academic center were invited to participate. The subjects wore a pedometer during five regular clinical days at work and recorded the number of steps walked. The participants also completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) during one regular week. The results were analyzed using analysis of variance, Chi-square test and multivariate linear regression using STATA 12.1. RESULTS: During work, attending, compared with senior and junior resident, anesthesiologists had the most steps (5,953 ± 1,213, 5,153 ± 905, and 5,710 ± 1,513 steps, respectively, P = 0.2). Outside work, senior residents had the highest level of activity (3,592 ± 1,626 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-minutes/week) compared to junior residents (1,788 ± 1,089 MET-minutes/week) and attending (2,104 ± 1,594 MET-minutes/week, P = 0.005); the percentage of recommended daily level of activity represented by this outside activity was senior residents (78.5%), junior residents (27%) and attending (21%) anesthesiologists (P = 0.002). When activity at and outside work was combined, most anesthesiologists met the recommended 10,000 steps daily, P < 0.009. CONCLUSIONS: The daily physical activity of faculty and trainee anesthesiologists at work in a busy tertiary care is low active. However, when additional physical activity is pursued outside of work, most anesthesiologists met recommended daily levels of activity. These results highlight the inadequacy of daily activity at work, and the need to pursue additional physical activity outside of work; such awareness can assist in promoting a healthy lifestyle.