References
Health behaviours in ambulance workers
Abstract
Introduction:
Awareness is increasing that health behaviours, which are a part of a person's lifestyle, have significant effects on emotional and physical wellbeing. Ambulance workers are at a higher risk of poorer psychological health outcomes than the general population. This begs the question whether lifestyle could play a role in emotional and physical health outcomes, which is an understudied area in this population. This paper reviews health behaviours in paramedics and assesses the impact they may have on their emotional and physical wellbeing.
Methodology:
PRISMA guidelines were adhered to and seven online bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychArticles, PsychINFO, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar) and reference lists of eligible articles were searched. Papers were systematically extracted and selected by title, then by abstract using inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Findings:
The papers included in this review (n=6) cover a range lifestyle factors (physical activity, smoking, alcohol use and sleep) that potentially affect wellbeing outcomes (weight/body mass index and post-traumatic stress symptoms) of ambulance workers across the Western world. They have various limitations.
Conclusion:
Ambulance workers engage in negative health behaviours that have some bearing on their emotional and physical wellbeing. Further research could explore the role of health behaviours and lifestyle in ambulance workers using validated measures. The findings could support the development of an evidence-based, occupation-specific intervention.
Awareness of the impact of our lifestyle on health outcomes is increasing (Reiner et al, 2013; Dale et al, 2014; Wang and Geng, 2019). Lifestyle can be viewed as a collective term that covers various health behaviours. An unhealthy lifestyle may be characterised by a poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol intake, drug misuse, stress and so on; a healthy lifestyle is, in contrast, involving engagement in physical activity, maintaining a good diet and the absence of addiction and/or excessive stress (Farhud, 2015).
There is a consensus backed by an abundance of research that suggests that a healthy lifestyle has a positive effect on emotional and physical wellbeing (Biddle and Asare, 2011; Thorp et al, 2011; Walsh, 2011; Reiner et al, 2013; Dale et al, 2014; Wang and Geng, 2019). Health behaviours can impact all-cause mortality; in the United States, it has been reported that 40% of deaths can be attributed to poor health behaviours such as physical inactivity, poor diet and/or alcohol misuse (Pirrallo et al, 2005). Similar conclusions have been drawn in the UK; Kvaavik et al (2010) conducted a prospective cohort study to assess the role of lifestyle on mortality in 4886 individuals. Four poor health behaviours were assessed: cigarette smoking; excessive alcohol intake; physical inactivity; and low fruit and vegetable intake. Engagement in these behaviours was significantly associated with a higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality (Kvaavik et al, 2010).
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