The health-promoting lifestyle behaviors of healthcare employees in Qatar – A cross-sectional comparative study

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers health to be a fundamental human right. Health is a resource that enables people to lead productive lives on an individual, social, and economic level. In Qatar, there are a limited number of studies addressing the health-promoting lifestyle behaviors of healthcare employees.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the health-promoting lifestyle of at-risk and non-risk groups of employees working in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the largest secondary and tertiary healthcare provider in the State of Qatar.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional comparative research study of all categories of healthcare employees working in HMC facilities. Participants with a body mass index (BMI) >30 kg/m², smokers, or those with pre-existing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were classified as the at-risk group, and individuals without any of these factors were classified as the non-risk group. Data were collected through an online survey using an adopted scale, Adolescent Health Promotion Short Form (AHP-SF), after approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of HMC.

Results: The age of the participants ranged from 22 to 69 years and the majority of them were female (64.07%). Most of the respondents were overweight or obese, accounting for 42.99% and 26.68% of the sample, respectively. Interestingly, 87.64% of the participants were non-smokers and approximately 70% had no chronic diseases. The overall AHP-SF score was 60.01/84 ± 12.32, with the highest score from the “life appreciation” subscale (12.68/16 ± 2.84) and the lowest score from the “exercise” subdomain (7.05/12 ± 2.93). Five subdomains – nutrition, social support, health responsibility, exercise, and stress management – of the AHP-SF scale showed no significant statistical differences between at-risk and non-risk groups. However, the “life appreciation” scale showed significant statistical differences between the at-risk (12.91/16 ± 2.69, p = 0.04) and non-risk (12.42/16 ± 2.98) groups. The AHP-SF scores varied significantly across the participants’ regions of origin, with Americans having the highest score (63.93/84 ± 10.67, p = 0.03) compared to other regions.

Conclusions: Healthcare employees moderately practice health-promoting lifestyle behaviors. The lowest scores were in the exercise subdomain, suggesting that more interventions are required to improve these behaviors. Healthcare organizations are ideal settings to implement comprehensive workplace wellness programs and awareness campaigns that can motivate employees to take greater responsibility for their own health and influence the wider community to adopt health-promoting lifestyle behaviors.