Background: Lifestyles as well as health behaviors and attitudes are a matter of personal health and a public health concern for healthcare providers. The aims of the study were to examine lifestyles and health behaviors - i.e., smoking habit, diet, predisposition to undergo for cancer screening tests among the staff of a Local Health Unit in Rome and the prevalence of some of the major preventable chronic degenerative pathologies associated to lifestyles.
Methods: The survey was carried out through the administration of a questionnaire. Descriptive and univariate analyses were performed and binary logistic regression models were used to identify possible associations with an unhealthy lifestyles. Hosmer-Lemeshow test was performed. The level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05.
Results: 355 employees entered the study (87,8%); 43.4% resulted in overweight/obesity and 36.6% is a current smoker. Those with a high degree of studies had an higher odds to be smokers (for low education OR=0.76; 95% CI:0,61-0.94) and healthcare workers were less likely to follow an unhealthy diet than administrative staff (OR=0.52; 95% CI: 0.29-0.91).
Conclusion: Despite the Local Health Unit employees have, in the specific context of their workplace, an important role in promoting healthy lifestyles, in our survey they show unhealthy habits and lifestyles.
Keywords: Attitudes; Health Behaviours; Health Care Workers; Health Survey; Lifestyle; Local Health Unit.