PRACTICING OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE AMONG ACADEMIC STAFFS IN FACULTY OF MEDICINE: IS IT VARIES WITH SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS?

Healthy lifestyle and regular physical exercise are well documented preventive factors of several chronic diseases. As the frontline of health care services, medical practitioners should be among the healthiest members of the community. Unfortunately most of the physicians have routinely neglected their own health in favor of their profession and personal obligations. Hence, the stress due to increased workloads and long working shifts may adversely affect the habit of engagement in physical exercise. To evaluate the adequacy of physical exercise performance and to identify the barrier in performing physical exercise among medical staffs A cross sectional study was conducted among the academic staffs of Faculty of Medicine UiTM. Each participant was given structured questionnaire to be answered. The questionnaire consists of 1) socio-demographic and medical details and 2) practice of exercise. A total of 155 participants enrolled. More than half of them were performing exercise. Jogging was the most performed exercise followed by body stretching and cycling. Tiredness, time constraint and work commitment were identified as important barrier in performing exercise. Ethnicity was significantly associated with practice of exercise (x2=4.101, OR: 0.285, 95%CI 0.79-1.02). Clinicality of academic staffs was also associated with adequacy of exercise (x2=3.861, OR: 2.567, 95% CI: 0.99-6.68). Despite living in medical line, lecturers of Faculty of Medicine UiTM practice exercise.&nbsp

ATTITUDE AND ABILITY TO OVERCOME BARRIERS IN PRACTICING OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE AMONG ACADEMY STAFF IN FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UITM

Several studies had highlighted the importance of exercise as a conservative treatment in medical world. The highly increased of the burden of disease especially the Non-communicable disease contributed to the increasing of the needs toward achieving optimum exercise benefits. It is evident that medical practitioners plays important role to implement and promote exercise among general population. Identifying the attitude of academic staff towards physical exercise was crucial in this aspect. Objectives: To determine the attitude and ability in overcoming exercise barrier in performing physical exercise in addition to identify the correlation between them among academic staff with and without medical graduated Methodology: A cross sectional study had been conducted, from January- September 2015, in two UiTM campuses (Sungai Buloh and Selayang). Sample of 155 academic staff consist of both medical and non-medical graduate was collected. Each participant was given well-structured questionnaire to be answered. Questionnaires contain two domains; the first one consists of six items reflecting either positive (2) or negative (4) attitude toward exercise. The second domain consists of seven items reflecting the ability in overcoming exercise barrier. Five-point-scoring: (1) very much overcome - (5) not at all, were given for each item. In addition, the questionnaire also contains information about the socio-demographic details of each participant. Result: The majority (95.5%) having good attitude towards physical exercise. No significant difference in the rate of good attitude between medical (95.7%) and non-medical (93.3%) graduate. There is no correlation between the general attitudes towards exercise with the ability to overcome exercise barriers. Significantly, male shows higher rate (77.4%) of ability of overcoming exercise barrier compare to woman (43.3%). No significant association between other socio-demographic characteristic (age, race, marital status) with neither general attitude towards exercise nor ability in overcoming exercise barrier. Conclusion: The majority of academic staff having good attitude. No significant difference between Medical and non-Medical graduate in terms of attitude and ability of overcoming exercise. No significant association between various socio-demographic profile and attitude towards exercise except for gender.&nbsp

SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC VARIATION AND ITS RELATION TO KNOWLEDGE ON PHYSICAL EXERCISE AMONG ACADEMIC STAFFS IN FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UITM, MALAYSIA

Regular physical exercise is very important to maintain physical and mental health. Many studies were done showing importance of exercise. It is important to differentiate between physical activity and physical exercise especially for academic staffs of medical faculty to have an adequate knowledge to be implemented to the students. Thus, we have conducted this study to assess knowledge of physical exercise among academic staff of medical faculty and to determine the association between knowledge of physical exercise and socio-demographic profile, to determine whether the knowledge of physical exercise is differed between Medical Degree (MD) graduated and non-MD graduated. A cross sectional study was conducted during a period of 9 months from January to September 2015 in Faculty of Medicine, UiTM. Total of 220 well-structured self-responded questionnaires were distributed to the academic staff’s candidates. The questionnaires consist of two parts comprising socio-demographic profile and assessment of knowledge about physical exercise. The knowledge part consists of three domains that reflecting concept, type and recommended duration of physical exercise. Generally, only total of 22.6% respondents has good knowledge. Males showing significantly higher rate (47.7%) of good knowledge on concept of exercise than females (29.7%), while females were significantly has higher rate (55.9%) of good knowledge on types of physical exercise than males (36.4%). Similarly, married staffs also has a significantly higher rate (56.9%) of good knowledge on types of exercise compared to single/divorced staffs (34.8%). Clinical academic staffs has a significantly higher rate (13.1%) of good knowledge about recommended duration of physical exercise than preclinical academic staffs (2.1%). On the other hand, no significant differences between MD graduated or non-MD graduated staffs neither in overall knowledge, knowledge on concept, types or recommended duration of physical exercise. This study found that the knowledge on physical exercise among academic staffs of Faculty of Medicine, UiTM was poor. Males have s good knowledge on concept of physical exercise but females have a better knowledge on types of physical exercise as well as married staffs’ on types of physical exercise. On the other hand, clinical academic staffs has more knowledge on recommended duration of physical exercise.&nbsp