The prevalence of five lifestyle risk factors in primary care physicians: a cross-sectional study in Switzerland

Having a healthy lifestyle is important not only for the health of physicians, but also for the realisation and effectiveness of counselling on patients. Information on lifestyle habits and the presence of health-related behaviours in primary care physicians (PCPs) is lacking. Using a cross-sectional study design, an anonymous questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1′000 PCPs practicing in the seven Western cantons of Switzerland. In our sample, we assessed the presence of five lifestyle risk factors, namely current smoking, at risk alcohol consumption, insufficient physical activity, being overweight and insufficient hours of sleep