Physical Fitness among Doctors Working in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Background: Physical fitness is the capacity to perform a sedentary task efficiently and also a sense of physical wellbeing and the capacity to deal with emergencies demanding unaccustomed physical effort. The fit man carries on a given grade of moderate work with less displacement of his physiological equilibrium.

Objectives

1. To measure the Physical Fitness Index of doctors at tertiary care hospital using modified Harvard Step Test.

2. To correlate physical fitness scoring with Body Mass Index, gender and physical activity.

Method: A cross sectional study was conducted on 156 doctors working in tertiary care teaching hospital attached to Mysore Medical College and Research Institute during June 2018 to May 2019. Modified Harvard step test was used to measure physical fitness. SPSS 17 version was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Males constituted 42.3% and females constituted 57.7% of the study population with a mean age of 33.5 years. BMI of females was little higher (24.01±3.77) when compared to males (24.03±3.01). Forty percent of females had excellent physical fitness whereas only 6.06% of males had excellent physical fitness. Only 14.40% of the female doctors had poor physical fitness whereas 36.36% of males had poor physical fitness. It was found that BMI and pulse rate had a statistically significant negative correlation with physical fitness where as physical activity, Systolic and diastolic blood pressure had positive correlation.

Conclusion: Physical activity is an important determinant and predictor of physical fitness. Females are having better physical fitness as most of them are pursuing some physical activity.