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Cited by 178Workplace Health and Well-beingHealth and Lifestyle StudiesHealth and Wellbeing Research

Nurses’ lifestyle behaviours, health priorities and barriers to living a healthy lifestyle: a qualitative descriptive study

Open access
Phiri, Lindokuhle P, Draper, Catherine E, Lambert, Estelle V, Kolbe-Alexander, Tracy L·2014·BMC Nursing
DOI 10.1186/s12912-014-0038-6PMC PMC4264254
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nurses have an increased risk for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), along with a high prevalence of obesity, poor eating habits and insufficient physical activity. The aim of this study was to determine the health concerns, health priorities and barriers to living a healthy lifestyle among nurses and hospital management staff from public hospitals in the Western Cape Metropole, South Africa. METHODS: Participants were purposively sampled (n = 103), and included management personnel (n = 9), night shift (n = 57) and day-shift nurses (n = 36). Twelve focus groups (FGDs) were conducted with nursing staff to obtain insight into nurses' health concerns, lifestyle behaviours and worksite health promotion programmes (WHPPs). Seven key informant interviews (KII) were conducted with management personnel, to gain their perspective on health promotion in the worksite. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data with the assistance of Atlas.ti Qualitative Data Analysis Software. RESULTS: Night shift nurses frequently identified weight gain and living with NCDs such as hypertension as their main health concerns. Being overweight was perceived to have a negative impact on work performance. All nurses identified backache and exposure to tuberculosis (TB) as occupation-related health concerns, and both management and nurses frequently reported a stressful working environment. Nurses frequently mentioned lack of time to prepare healthy meals due to long working hours and being overtired from work. The hospital environment was perceived to have a negative influence on the nurses' lifestyle behaviours, including food service that offered predominantly unhealthy foods. The most commonly delivered WHPPs included independent counselling services, an online employee wellness programme offered by the Department of Health and wellness days in which clinical measures, such as blood glucose were measured. Nurses identified a preference for WHPPs that provided access to fitness facilities or support groups. CONCLUSIONS: Public hospitals are a stressful work environment and shift work places an additional strain on nurses. The risk of NCDs and exposure to infectious disease remains a concern in this working population. Our findings highlight the need for WHPPs that support nurses in managing stress and transforming the work environment to facilitate healthy lifestyles.

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  • Competition between sleep need and other demands causes exercise, healthy eating, and personal care to be done quickly, to a lesser standard, or foregone, making a healthy lifestyle difficult for shift workers.

    “This results in competition between the need for sleep and other demands, such as exercise, healthy eating, and personal care. These latter activities are then often done quickly or to a lesser standard (e.g., fast food), or foregone altogether, making it difficult for shift workers to maintain a healthy lifestyle [107].”

    From Shift Work: Disrupted Circadian Rhythms and Sleep—Implications for Health and Well-being (2017) · cites this paper as [107]

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  1. [32]Patton MQ Qualitative Research 2002 Third edition Thousand Oaks, California Sage Publications

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Authors
Phiri, L. P., Draper, C. E., Lambert, E. V., & Kolbe-Alexander, T. L.
Affiliations
University of Cape Town (ZA)
Corresponding author
Kolbe-Alexander, Tracy L
ORCID
Venue
BMC Nursing
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2014-11-28
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
38-38
ISSN
1472-6955 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12912-014-0038-6
PMC
PMC4264254
OpenAlex
W1997698673
Cited by
178
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4
FWCI
15.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Nursing (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Southern Queensland ePrints (University of Southern Queensland) (acceptedVersion)
  • Open University of Cape Town (University of Cape Town) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Lifestyle Studies
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Wellbeing Research
Keywords
healthy lifestyle, non-communicable diseases, shift work, night shift nurses, occupational health, workplace health promotion, obesity, hypertension, occupational stress, tuberculosis exposure, back pain, food service, working hours, public hospitals, hospital management

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