Do we practice what we teach? Lifestyle of doctors working in Wielkopolska region

Background. Health education is one of the roles of general practitioners. According to the literature it is known that the doctors having healthy lifestyle pay more attention to prevention in their daily practice. Objectives. The aim of the study was to show doctors' opinions on their lifestyle. Material and methods. The study group comprised 268 doctors working in Wielkopolska Region (Poland): 166 women and 102 men. Mean age in study group was 45.4 years. Among respondents 38% worked in hospitals, 33.6% in primary care surgeries and 27.6% in other outpatient clinics. Results. Based on weight and height BMI was calculated. Overweight or obesity was revealed in 60.8% male and 19.3% of female doctors. For the question "Do you think that you care about your health?" 75% gave positive answer. It was mainly expressed by not smoking or reducing the number of smoked cigarettes (58.2%) and having healthy diet (56.3%), declared more common by women. Only one in three doctors declared eating vegetables, and less than a half declared eating fruit several times a day. Current smoking was declared by 8.3% of doctors. Leisure activities were principally declared as low-effort home activities - not physical activity. Intensive physical activity was declared by 13.4% of patients. Conclusions. Results lifestyle declared by doctors is far from recommended. Obesity or overweight is a serious health problems also in doctors. Promotion of healthy behavior among doctors is one of the ways of improving population health.