Evaluation of the relationship between level of physical activity and quality of life in nurses

ABSTRACT FİKRET KILINÇ, EVALUATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN NURSES, NURSING MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAM WITH THESIS GAZİANTEP 2018 This study is a descriptive study designed to evaluate the relationship between level of physical activity and quality of life in nurses. The research was carried out between June and October 2017 in Adıyaman University Training and Research Hospital with the necessary institutional permissions. The research sample was consisted of 442 nurses who were willing to participate in the study."Personal Information Form", "International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form", "SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire" were used for the data collection. Statistical analysis of the data obtained from the study was performed using the SPSS for Windows Version 21.00 package program, Chi-square Test, Two Independent Sample t test and ANOVA tests. It was determined that 48% of nurses had low physical activity level and 19.9% had sufficient physical activity level. Male, single and 20-30 age group nurses had higher level of physical activity and the difference between the groups was found to be statistically significant. It was found that the mean scores of the quality of life of nurses, respectively, 74.98±19.93 for physical function, 70.99±37.93 for role-physical, 64.02±20.01 for bodily pain, 56.54±15.62 for general health, 64.48±16.24 for mental health, 69.39±40.38 for role-emotional, 62.75±25.75 for social function, and 53.59±19.55 for vitality/energy. Age, gender, level of education, marital status, body mass index, chronic illness and drug use were found to be factors affecting the quality of life. It was found that as physical activity levels of nurses increase, all subscale scores of life quality increase; and the difference between physical activity levels and the quality of life was statistically significant in all subscales except role-emotional. As a result, it was determined that physical activity increases quality of life and quality of life increases with increasing physical activity level. Key words: Physical activity, quality of life, nurses