Effects of physical activity levels on nurses' quality oflife and burnout levels

It is clearly known that physical activity has positive effects on physical and mental health. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of physical activity levels on the quality of life and burnout levels of the nurses working at HİTÜ Erol Olçok Training and Research Hospital. The permissions required for the study were obtained from the Provincial Health Directorate and HITU Non-Interventional Researches Ethics Committee. The participants were asked to give their written consent prior to study. Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to determine burnout levels, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to determine physical activity levels, and SF-36 Quality of Life Scale for life quality assessment. The personal information questionnaire developed by the researchers was used to collect the demographic data of the subjects. 212 nurses (147 women and 65 men) voluntarily participated in the study. SPSS 22.0 statistical software was used to analyze the data. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to test the normal distribution of the data. Since the data were not normally distributed, analyzes were performed by using non-parametric tests. Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess differences between groups and KruskalWallis H was used was used to assess differences among groups. The statistical significance level was set at p<.05. Bonferroni correction was applied where appropriate. As a result, it was found that there is a negative and moderate correlation between burnout and physical activity levels, and a positive and moderate correlation between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. It was also found that 112 nurses were inactive and 53 nurses were in the minimally active category and these subjects covered 77.8% of the group. Physical functioning, a sub-dimension of SF-36, scores differed by BMI, gender, marital status, educational status and professional experience. Analysis of the participants burnout scale scores revealed that there are significant differences in burnout scores by marital status, BMI category, status of choosing the profession, year of experience and clinics. As a result of the study, it was found that the working conditions of the nurses were intense, their physical activity levels were not at the desired level, and the burnout and quality of life levels deteriorated as the year of experience was increased.