Health in the NHS: lifestyle behaviours of hospital employees

Dr Holly Blake from the University of Nottingham, Dr Phoenix K. H. Mo from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr. Sandra Lee from the University of Leicester and Prof. Mark E Batt form Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust present findings from a study looking at the health and wellbeing profiles of NHS Staff Whilst recent UK government publications have called for NHS staffto 'set the example' as role models for the health of the general public,1,2 previous work has suggested that many NHS staffengage in negative health behaviours.2,11 This is important, not least with regards to the health of the individuals concerned, but also has implications for patient care, since the health practices of healthcare staffhas been associated with their tendency to raise health behaviour issues with their patients and clients,3 and healthcare staffpersonally feel that their own health behaviours affect the quality of the patient care they deliver.2 Sickness absence rates are high amongst NHS employees and are known to be greater in the NHS compared with other sectors. 2,4 For those who are not absent but in poor health, work 'presenteeism' is a key issue affecting productivity, 5 and these factors all have a concomitant financial burden on NHS resources. 2,6 There is a need to further understand the health and wellbeing profile of NHS employees in order to inform effective targeting of interventions to support them in making healthy lifestyle choices. Methods and Results All NHS employees based on a single acute NHS teaching hospital campus were invited to take part in a questionnaire survey (n=7,085) to assess baseline health and wellbeing of NHS employees prior to the development of a workplace wellness intervention. The questionnaire has been described previously,7 and included demographic information (age, gender, height and weight), physical activity level and barriers to physical activity, self-efficacy for physical activity, knowledge of physical activity, social support for physical activity and participation in recreational and sport activities. A metabolic equivalent of task (MET) for recreational and sport activities was calculated for each participant. Perception of general health and mood status, smoking behaviour (cigarette or pipe), dietary behaviour (5-a-day, consumption of foods high in fat or sugar, drinking eight glasses of water per day, and employees were asked to indicate whether they considered that they ate healthily at the time of the study). The survey also included items related to selfefficacy for healthy eating and social support for healthy eating, perceived work performance and self-reported sickness absence. Ethical approval was gained prior to the study commencing, together with approval from local NHS R&D. Questionnaires were distributed to all employees via their payslips and informed consent was taken to be return of the form via the internal mail system, within a specified period of four weeks. Data was entered into SPSS for Windows 13.0 and a 10% data check was conducted. Responses were received from 1,452 employees (21%), with a demographic profile comparable with that of the local NHS Trust. The mean age of employees was 41 (SD=11.2, range 17-72) years. There were 297 male (20.5%) and 1155 female respondents (79.5%). Most of the employees were from nursing (38.2%) and administrative or clerical categories (25.5%) which represented the largest occupational groups within the Trust. Just under a third of employees (30%) reported that they were sedentary ('not very' or 'not at all' active) at work. In the previous week, 31% reported that they had actively travelled to the workplace. Almost half of the employees (45.2%) did not meet the physical activity guidelines for the benefit of health at that time: '30 minutes of moderate activity on most days of the week'.1 The most common reported barriers to engaging in physical activity were not having time to be physically active (62. …