Sedentary Hours At Work And Health Challenges Among Civil Servants At The Rivers State Secretariat Complex Port Harcourt Rivers State Nigeria.

The study examined the Sedentary Hours at Work and Challenges among Civil Servants at the Rivers State secretariat complex Port Harcourt Rivers State Nigeria. It used the Cross sectional survey design. The study was delimited to the thirty ministries at the Rivers state secretariat complex. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to carry out the study. A cluster sampling techniques was used to select two ministries from each of the five blocks of A B C podium block and point block. The respondents were stratified into male and female staff junior and senior staff. A list of respondents was taken to exclude visitors. A 64-item structured questionnaire was distributed proportionately to the ministries while oral interview and focus group discussion were conducted with ten respondents each who responded positively to five out of the thirteen health challenges under study. The ecological model of health behavior was used to explain the study. The Result showed that workers sit for 3-7 hours each working day without getting up. Number of hours at work was significantly related to the health challenges. Stress was the commonest health challenge followed by eye problem musculo-skeletal discomfort but oral interview result showed musculo-skeletal discomfort as the commonest. Other health challenges were present with lesser percentages. There was no significant association between gender and health challenges except for diabetes which was common with men. The number of hours at work was associated with organizational culture work load and increasing reliance on technology. It was concluded that workers should use the stair case more than the elevators when climbing up.