The Influence Of Physical Activities At The Workplace On Private Medical Center Employees

Abstract

Being aware of the increase in obesity and sedentary lifestyle, many organizations develop intervention programs to improve the health of their employees by offering them various physical activities at work. PURPOSE: To assess the barriers of engaging in physical activity among medical center employees, and the mental and physical impact of participation in physical activity lessons at work. METHODS: 231 private medical center employees including physicians, paramedical and administrative staff participated in this study. 135 participants were not active in the lessons and 96 (70%) who were active, practiced twice weekly in various activities: Pilates, yoga, running, cycling, and Zumba. RESULTS: The physical activity group was found to have a higher workplace satisfaction level (p<.001), a decrease in burnout (p<.01), better health perceptions (p<.01), lower weight (p<.05), a reduction in chronic morbidity and drug consumption (p<.05), less smoking and liquor consumption (p<.01), healthier eating and sleeping habits (p<.001) and more physical activity outside of working hours (p<.01). Among the main barriers to participate in the activity lessons at work for the non-active group were: unsuitable lesson schedule (62%) lack of desire for sport (61%), lack of time (53%), fatigue (44%), prior family commitments (39%), non-payment of activity time (35%), and unawareness of the physical activity programs (27%). CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity programs at medical centers promote employees health thereby neutralizing negative aspects such as worker burnout, mental and physical fatigue and increases employee satisfaction at the workplace. Therefore, more promotion of physical activity at the workplace should be encouraged in order to increase employee participation. However, further research is needed in public medical center to verify these research findings among healthcare employees.