Elabd Kossay, Basudan Loay, Alabduljabbar Khaled
Family Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, SAU.
Cureus. 2022 Jul 14;14(7):e26834. doi: 10.7759/cureus.26834. eCollection 2022 Jul.
Obesity is a significant risk factor for multiple diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Many healthcare organizations worldwide have identified a high prevalence of obesity among their employees. In this study, we are looking at the prevalence of obesity among the employees of our healthcare organization and its impact on the employees' productivity and if its current prevalence is costly to the employer.
This is a non-interventional cross-sectional study conducted at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data on the current employees were obtained from medical records. We investigated a random sample of employees who worked in the hospital for at least one year between January 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022. We explored the prevalence of obesity among hospital employees at the beginning of their employment and its current prevalence. In addition, we aimed to investigate the effect of having employees suffering from obesity on their productivity and their utilization of healthcare during their employment period.
We identified that our hospital has relatively younger healthcare workers and more employees who are suffering from obesity than in different other countries. The percentage of obese male and female employees was comparable. We had a relatively high increase in the prevalence of obesity among our employees during the last few years. We found a higher number of obesity-related medical problems, more office visits, more sick leaves, and more medications prescribed for overweight and employees who are suffering from obesity compared to those with normal weight.
Healthcare workers suffering from obesity had lower productivity and they had higher utilization of healthcare. Therefore, employers should investigate the prevalence of obesity in their organization and implement diverse strategies to prevent and manage this issue to help their employees have better health and, at the same time, be more productive and lower their utilization of healthcare.
肥胖是糖尿病和心血管疾病等多种疾病的重要危险因素。全球许多医疗机构都发现其员工中肥胖患病率很高。在本研究中，我们考察了我们医疗机构员工中的肥胖患病率及其对员工生产力的影响，以及其当前患病率对雇主而言是否成本高昂。
这是一项在沙特阿拉伯利雅得的法赫德国王专科医院和研究中心进行的非干预性横断面研究。从医疗记录中获取当前员工的数据。我们调查了在2021年1月1日至2022年1月1日期间在医院工作至少一年的随机抽样员工。我们探究了医院员工入职初期的肥胖患病率及其当前患病率。此外，我们旨在调查患有肥胖症的员工在其工作期间对其生产力和医疗保健利用情况的影响。
我们发现，与其他不同国家相比，我们医院的医护人员相对年轻，且肥胖员工更多。肥胖男性和女性员工的比例相当。在过去几年中，我们员工的肥胖患病率有相对较高的增长。我们发现，与体重正常的员工相比，超重和肥胖员工出现的与肥胖相关的医疗问题更多、门诊就诊次数更多、病假更多，开具的药物也更多。
患有肥胖症的医护人员生产力较低，医疗保健利用率较高。因此，雇主应调查其组织内的肥胖患病率，并实施多种策略来预防和管理这一问题，以帮助员工拥有更健康的身体，同时提高生产力并降低医疗保健利用率。
