Evaluation of nutritional habits, physical activity levels and metabolicrisk factors of resident working at Akdeniz University Hospital

Aim: In this study the nutritional habits, physical activity levels and metabolic risk factors of the resident that work in Akdeniz University Hospital were evaluated. Material and method: 215 resident voluntarily participated in our study. The questionnaires were applied with the method of "answering under observation". "Three Factor Eating Questionnaire" known as "TFEQ-18" was used in the literature to evaluate nutritional habits. The short form of the "International Physical Activity Questionnaire" known as "IPAQ-short form" was used in order to evaluate the physical activity level. The questionnaire included the metabolic risk factors and sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The analysis of the data obtained from our study was done with IBM SPSS 24.0. Statistical significance level was accepted as p <0.05. Continuous variables are expressed as mean ± standard deviation, categorical data as numbers and percentages. In the intergroup analysis of continuous variables, normality analyzes were performed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness of Fit Test. Since the data did not conform to the normal distribution, comparisons between the two groups were made with the Mann Whitney U Test, and comparisons between the three groups and above were made with the Kruskal Wallis Test. Chi- Squared Test was used for comparison of categorical data. Findings: According to the study 51.6% of the participants were women, 61.9% were single, 35.8% were first-year resident, 78.6% work in internal medicine departments. BMI of 62.3% of participants ranged between 18.5-24.9. It has been identified that 56.3% of the participants started feeding less healthy after starting to work as resident 37.9% of which smoked and 63.7% consumed alcohol. In parallel with the increased BMI and age, levels of erroneous eating behaviors such as UE (uncontrolled eating), EE (emotional eating) and sensitivity to hunger increased. The level of cognitive restraint (CR) weakened as the number of shift increased. Only 20.1% of the resident were physically active. Metabolic risk factors were higher in males than females. Result: In our study, it was revealed that the physicians that should give the lead to the society about healthy nutrition and physical activity display erroneous eating behaviors and do not perform sufficient physical activity. It is very important for the physicians, who provide the most consultancy to the patients about adequate and balanced nutrition and physical activity, to be a role model in these issues, both for their own health and for their counseling to be effective. Keywords: Healthy Nutrition, Physical Activity, Metabolic Risk Factors, Residents, Physicians