ArticlePracticeNurses' self-care behaviors related to weight and stress
Section snippets
Health Promotion Issues Among Nurses
Nurses who provide direct health care to patients and their family members often serve as role models and educate the public about their health. Many nurses, however, neglect to take care of their own health (American Association of Colleague of Nursing, 2008). For example, 21.7% of participants in a survey of 394 Icelandic nurses reported their physical health as poor or very poor, with a lack of regular exercise as well as trouble sleeping (Sveinsdottir & Gunnarsdottir, 2008). In another
Design
This study was an anonymous online survey using a cross-sectional design. The anonymous survey was selected to protect participants' confidentiality because they were employees of the hospital where one of the investigators was in a supervisory position. Some of the items asked about personal health information, such as weight and alcohol consumption. The link to the online survey was e-mailed to the selected hospitals' RN_listserv, which included all RNs. (All RNs used the hospital's e-mail
Results
A total of 183 participants started the survey, and 169 completed the survey. Table 2 summarizes demographic characteristics of the sample. The majority of participants were female (n = 164, 97.0%) and white (n = 145, 87.3%), followed by African American (n = 10, 6.0%). The mean age was 47 ± 11.3 years, and the majority (n = 116, 68.3%) were age 45 or older. Most participants (n = 164, 97%) used the Internet at home and preferred online surveys (n = 162, 95.9%) as opposed to the paper version.
Discussion
The demographics of participants were largely similar to the national sample. In a 2008 national survey, most RNs were female (93.8%) and white (83.2%) (HRSA, 2010). Average age was 47 years. In this sample, 58.2% (n = 71) of participants age 40 years or older had a BMI of 25 or higher. Of those, mean BMI was 32.8 ± 7.0, which falls into the obese category. Although these BMI statistics are better than those of the general population (62% to 70.5% of American women age 40 and older in 2009 [
Conclusion
Nurses' work environments, including long hours and stress, have been studied in relation to productivity, job satisfaction, and patient outcomes. Although their work environments make nurses more at risk for known health problems, including overweight and obesity, those health problems have rarely been addressed in nurses. Findings from this study suggest that weight gain and less-than-optimal dietary and exercise patterns are potential health problems, especially among older nurses. Further
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