Abstract
Overweight and obesity has become a major health issue in recent years with the World Health Organization (WHO, 2000) referring to it as a global epidemic. Despite superior knowledge of the causes and implications of obesity, levels of obesity in nurses in the UK are higher than in the general population (Kyle et al., 2017). This is a cause for concern for healthcare organisations at a time when staffing is reaching critically low levels and sickness absence is increasing. Therefore, there is a strong focus by many healthcare organisations to address the issue of obesity in the workforce.
Several initiatives have emerged in recent years to promote physical activity in the workplace. However, as shown by the authors of this study, nurses accumulate sufficient physical activity during a typical shift to maintain energy balance providing they do not consume more than the recommended daily calorie intake. This is a useful finding, and the study is strengthened by objectively measured heart rate and physical activity data to quantify nurses’ energy expenditure rather than relying on self-report, which has been shown to be inaccurate. It is important to understand that energy expenditure is far more complex and influenced by several factors, including body size and composition as well as external factors including temperature and stress. Despite this, the study provides quantitative data to demonstrate that physical inactivity in the workplace is unlikely to be contributing to the current obesity problem.
These findings will be useful for policy makers in terms of guiding future workplace initiatives; however, they must be looked at in the context of wider issues such as diet, stress and activity levels outside work. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that lack of proper meal breaks and the unavailability of healthy food options in hospital canteens are resulting in the consumption of calorie-dense and nutritionally poor foods, which could explain the inability of the reported activity levels in the current study to maintain energy balance. Furthermore, nurses spend more of their time off shift than on, so further studies should explore nurses’ behaviour in their non-work time in order to gain a more comprehensive picture of why nurse obesity is a rising problem.
An interesting point to note is that in the USA, although nurse obesity is still a major problem, levels of obesity amongst nurses are lower than those in the general population (Kyle et al., 2016). Nursing in the UK is a highly stressful career, especially in the current environment of increased demands and low staffing levels. It is widely acknowledged that stress can lead to unhealthy diet and lifestyle behaviours, therefore workplace stress is an area that needs to be addressed with urgency if increasing levels of obesity in nurses are to be halted.