HEALTH RISKY LIFESTYLES AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN TWO SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS IN OGUN STATE

Abstract

Health workers (HWs) are recognised as one of the effective behavioural change agents even though they equally engage in risky health behaviour. Studies have linked Health Risk Lifestyles (HRLs) to occurrence of preventable disease condition or even avoidable mortalities. However there is dearth of information on HRL’s of HW in Nigeria. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating HRLs among health workers in two selected local government areas (LGAs) of Ogun State, Nigeria. The study was cross-sectional in design using a simple random sampling technique to select two LGAs (Sagamu and Ikenne) from the nine LGAs within Ogun East Senatorial District. Total population of all consenting HWs in Sagamu (160) and Ikenne (151) were recruited in 23 and 10 health facilities respectively. The HWs comprised of Environmental and Health educators, Medical (Doctors. Nurses, Community Health Officers and both Senior and Junior Community Health Extension Workers), Pharmacists, and Medical Laboratory Scientists. A validated self- administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on respondents socio-demographic and occupational characteristics, HRI-s relating to alcohol consumption, use of seat belts while driving, smoking, use of crash helmet while riding a motorcycle, unhealthy eating habits, sedentary life style and sexual relationship with multiple partners. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test at p<0.05. Age of respondents was 34.7±7.9 years. Sixty-four point six percent were females and 318% had been in service within the last 11 year. Respondents constituted: Environmental and Health educators (31.2%), Medical (60.5%), Medical laboratory scientists (3 5%), and Pharmacists (4.8%). A total of 67 (21.5%) respondents currently consumed alcohol of which 34.8% had driven a car under the influence of alcohol, and 57.4% reported not using seat belt while driving. A total of 10.0% of health worker were currently smoking while majority 72.3% did not use crash helmet. Twenty percent of respondents reported eating excessively and 55.9% skipped regular breakfast. Sixty-two percent reported they did not engage in any form of exercise, and about 56.0% had sexual relationship with multiple partners in the last one month. The age group 30-39 years had the highest percentage 48.6% of HRLS. There were significant associations between cadre (medical) and smoking, years of service (< 1-5 years) and alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption, use of crash helmet, relationship with multiple sexual partners were also significantly associated with the sex (male) of respondents. Health workers in the medical cadre engaged more in risky lifestyles. There is need for sensitization workshop on risky lifestyles to help health workers actualize their full potentials as effective behavioral change agents.