Magnitude of risk factors for non-communicable diseases among health professionals at a private tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan

Globally, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are considered as a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The people\u27s vulnerability to NCDs is increasing as a result of a high magnitude of risk factors (RFs) of NCDs among them. Health Professionals (HPs), being mentors of the population, are responsible for managing a plethora of health issues and for reducing the RFs of NCDs through guiding principles and preventions. Despite this, HPs themselves are not sufficiently adopting health promotion practices, and becoming easy victims of the RFs and, eventually, NCDs. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine the RFs of NCDs and their magnitude, among HPs at a private tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: A quantitative, analytical cross-sectional design, was used to attain the study purpose. In all 264 HPs, of seven different categories, from all the twelve service lines of AKUH were recruited. The purposive sampling technique was adopted and the modified STEPs questionnaire devised by WHO was used to gather the data. Data were analyzed by using SPSS v.19. The descriptive analysis was calculated by using mean with standard deviation; frequency and proportion; and median with interquartile range. Moreover, the Pearson Chi-square test was used to find out associations between the study variables. Results: The present study findings revealed a high magnitude of tobacco use (43.2%), alcohol consumption (15.9%), inadequate diet intake (81.8%), and physical inactivity (61.7%) among the HPs. The study results depicted that 22% of the HPs were hypertensive, 16.3% were overweight, and 51.5% were obese. The RFs for NCDs were more prevalent among the nurses compared to other HPs. Alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity were found to be significantly associated with gender (P \u3c 0.05). The findings also showed that physical inactivity and BMI were associated with marital status. In addition, a significant association of hypertension and BMI with age groups was observed. Conclusion: The present research reports a high magnitude of RFs of NCDs among HPs. Considering this, there is an urgent need for motivating HPs to adopt healthy behaviors and for initiating 1-1Ps focused interventions at different levels, for the prevention, health promotion, and early detection of the RFs of NCDs among them