Assessment of UMC employees' attitudes and behaviors toward fitness and wellness

The attitudes and behaviors toward fitness and wellness of University Medical Center employees were examined. The consistency of the attitudes and behaviors was studied along with differences between males and females, health caregivers and nonhealth caregivers and between four age groups. The subjects answered a two-part questionnaire that examined these ten health factors: strength, sleep, flexibility, body composition, aerobic exercise, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, seatbelt and diet. The first part of the questionnaire assessed attitudes and the second part assessed behaviors toward these ten factors. The data were analyzed by a point biserial correlation, the Friedman two-way ANOVA by ranks, and two-by-two contingency tables with a chisquare analysis. Inconsistencies were found between the attitudes and behaviors in the following six health factors: sleep, flexibility, body composition, cholesterol, blood pressure, and smoking. Differences in the attitudes of males and females were found toward smoking and differences in their behaviors were found for strength and diet. Significant differences were found between the behaviors of health caregivers and non-health caregivers for cholesterol and blood pressure. Age differences were found for attitude toward body composition and for the behavior of a low-fat diet.