LIFESTYLE HABITS AMONG KSMC PHYSICIANS

Background: Most medical research today focuses on three aspects: stress and burnout at work mental illness such as depression and suicide and drug addiction. On the other hand, little research has been done among physicians so far on behavioral and preventive interventions including healthy lifestyles habits among physicians. Therefore, the aim of this study to assess the lifestyle habits practicing among KSMC physicians, Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This is an analytical cross-sectional study conducted in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh (including all physicians in King Saud Medical City), from April, 2020 till December 2021 using pre-designed questionnaire which was distributed online. The questionnaire was prepared to assess the demographic factors, physical activity, eating pattern, health concern. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for data analysis. Results: we were able to collect data from 104 physicians in response to our questionnaire where all of them where medicine physicians and 57.7 % of them were males. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 18.4 % and 27.2 % respectively. Moreover, 55.8 % of physicians reported that they did not practice any type of exercises however, 32.7 % practiced endurance or aerobic exercise. Furthermore, 24 % of the participants reported being on diet where 8.7 % were on keto diet and 1.9 % were on Mediterranean diet. In our study, poor exercise and diet habits were associated with poor BMI, poor sleep pattern and higher prevalence of medical conditions. Conclusion: We found that there is high prevalence of obesity and overweight among physicians at KSMC, Saudi Arabia which in addition to poor sleep pattern and high incidence of other medical conditions were significantly associated with the poor life-style habits including low level of practicing exercise and having health diet regime.